n trees.
This cultivation increases each year, and the quality of the produce
improves, whilst the expenses diminish. However, the Dutch Government
has judged it proper not to extend it, although the soil of Java
appears favorable to this culture.
From 200,000 to 300,000 lbs. of true cinnamon, not freed from its
epidermis, is exported annually from Cochin-China.
JAVA CINNAMON SOLD IN HOLLAND.
lbs.
In 1835 2,200
" 1836 1,300
" 1837 1,600
" 1838 2,100
" 1839 4,700
" 1840 7,900
" 1841 23,900
" 1842 13,000
" 1843 23,000
" 1844 101,400
" 1845 134,500
" 1848 250,550
STATISTICS OF PACKAGES IN LONDON.
1842. 1843. 1844. 1845.
Imported 2,196 4,458 9,197 8,909
Exported 3,661 3,964 6,712 6,081
Duty paid 838 738 801 1,012
Stock 2,709 2,622 4,230 5,549
CASSIA BARK.
_Cinnamonum Cassia_, or _aromaticum_, the _Laurus cassia_ of Linnaeus,
seems to be the chief source of the "cassia lignea" of commerce. It
differs from the true cinnamon tree in many particulars. Its leaves
are oblong-lanceolate; they have three ribs, which coalesce into one
at the base; its young twigs are downy, and its leaves have the taste
of cinnamon.
Malabar cassia appears to be the produce of another species of
_Cinnamonum_, probably _C. eucalyptoides_, or _Malabatrum_.
Dr. Wight, of the Madras Medical Service, in a report to the East
India Company, expresses his belief that the cassia producing plants
extend to nearly every species of the genus. "A set of specimens (he
observes) submitted for my examination, of the trees furnishing cassia
on the Malabar coast, presented no fewer than four distinct species;
including among them the genuine cinnamon plant, the bark of the older
trees of which, it would appear, are exported from the coast as
cassia. Three or four more species are natives of Ceylon, exclusive of
the cinnamon proper, all of which greatly resemble the cinnamon plant,
and in the woods might easily be mistaken for it and peeled, though
the produce would be inferior. Thus we have from Western India and
Ceylon alone, probably not less than six plants producing cassia; add
to these nearly twice as
|