SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
Laurus foliis trinerviis ovato-oblongis, nervis versus apicem evanescentibus. Willdenow, Sp. Pl. vol. 2. p. 477.
Leaves three nerved, oval-oblong, nerves vanishing towards the point of the leaf.
REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. A flower spread open, shown from the outer side.
2. The same shown from the inner side.
3. The pointal.
For the first tolerable figure of the Cinnamon tree we are indebted to Dr. Hermann, Professor of Botany at Leyden who had also the honour of introducing it to Europe, having brought living plants with him, on his return from Ceylon, which vegetated in the Leyden Academy’s garden, and in the gardens of Mynheers Benting and Beverning between two and three years, until a severe winter destroyed them. See his Catalogue of the Plants in the Leyden Garden (Horti Academici Lugduno-Batavi Catalogus), page 130, plates 665 and 666. This fact is the more curious, as Linnæus, describing the Cinnamon from dried specimens in his noble patron Clifford’s collection, fifty years after, speaks of it as a plant forbidden to our shores; which Europe had never seen alive, and could hardly hope to see, or to retain even if it could be procured.
The Cinnamon was first cultivated in England by Mr. Miller in the Apothecaries’ garden at Chelsea about the year 1768; who probably received it from Holland, the Spice plantations at that time being entirely in the hands of the Dutch. No figure of it has before been published in this country, nor any account of its flowering. It grows naturally in the Island of Ceylon, from whence the vast quantity annually imported into Europe is supplied. The following method of procuring and preparing the bark is abridged from Thunberg’s Travels. Proper trees being selected, that is, those that are neither too young nor too old, the branches of three years growth are cut off with a pruning-knife, and their green outer bark scraped off with a crooked knife. The remaining bark is then ripped up lengthwise and peeled off and the smaller pieces being drawn into the larger, they are laid in the sun to dry. After being sufficiently dried, they are tied up in bundles of about 30 pounds weight each, and brought to the Company’s storehouses, where inspectors appointed for that purpose examine every bundle by tasting of it; and on its being approved of, it is tied in bundles of about 85 pounds weight each, which are then sewed into double woollen sacks, over which black pepper is strewed to attract any remaining moisture, and in this state shipped for Europe. From the dust and fragments remaining in the warehouses the extremely valuable and rare oil of Cinnamon is distilled. An oil is also distilled from the leaves, another from the fruit, and a fourth from the bark of the root.
Cinnamon is also found wild in the woods of Martinico, according to Professor Jacquin; but the Ceylon Cinnamon is always considered the best.
We are informed by our friend Mr. Anderson, that a Cinnamon tree in the garden of the Bishop of Winchester at Farnham Castle (perhaps the finest in England) has for many years blossomed and ripened its fruit annually, and that great numbers of young trees have been raised from the fruit, which have far surpassed for healthiness and hardiness the plants commonly obtained from layers, or those imported; and which leads us to hope that the Cinnamon trees may soon become more common and less difficult of cultivation: and his lordship’s great success with it will, we hope, serve to stimulate others. We have also seen a drawing in Mr. Lambert’s collection, taken in the Bishop of Durham’s garden at Mongewell, where it flowered, as we are informed by his lordship, in February 1796.