acid. The Cinnamomin of Martin (1868) has been shown by Wittstein to be very probably mere mannite. The effect of iodine on a decoction of cinnamon will be noticed under the head of Cassia Lignea. Cinnamon afforded to Schätzler (1862) 5 per cent. of ash consisting chiefly of the carbonates of calcium and potassium.

Uses Cinnamon is used in medicine as a cordial and stimulant, but is much more largely consumed as a spice.

Adulteration-Cassia lignea being much cheaper than cinnamon, is very commonly substituted for it. So long as the bark is entire, there is no difficulty in its recognition, but if it should have been reduced to powder, the case is widely different. We have found the following tests of some service, when the spice to be examined is in powder:-Make a decoction of powdered cinnamon of known genuineness; and one of similar strength of the suspected powder. When cool and strained, test a fluid ounce of each with one or two drops of tincture of iodine. A decoction of cinnamon is but little affected, but in that of cassia a deep blue-black tint is immediately produced (see further on, Cort. Cassia). The cheap kinds of cassia, known as Cassia vera, may be distinguished from the more valuable Chinese Cassia, as well as from cinnamon, by their richness in mucilage. This can be extracted by cold water as a thick glairy liquid, giving dense ropy precipitates with corrosive sublimate or neutral acetate of lead, but not with alcohol.

Other products of the Cinnamon Tree.

Essential Oil of Cinnamon Leaf (Oleum Cinnamomi foliorum) -This is a brown, viscid, essential oil, of clove-like odour, which is sometimes exported from Ceylon. It has been examined by Stenhouse (1854), who found it to have a sp. gr. of 1053, and to consist of a mixture of Eugenol (p. 284) with a neutral hydrocarbon having the formula CH. It also contains a small quantity of benzoic acid.

Essential Oil of Cinnamon Root (Oleum Cinnamoni radicis)— A yellow liquid, lighter than water, having a mixed odour of camphor and cinnamon, and a strong camphoraceous taste. Both this oil and that of the leaf were described by Kämpfer (1712) and by Seba in 1731,1 and perhaps by Garcia de Orta so early as 1563. Solid camphor may also be obtained from the root. A water distilled from the flowers, and a fatty oil expressed from the fruits are likewise noticed by old writers, but are unknown to us.

CORTEX CASSIE LIGNEÆ.

Cassia Lignea, Cassia Bark.

Botanical Origin-Various species of Cinnamomum occurring in the warm countries of Asia from India eastward, afford what is termed in commerce Cassia Bark. The trees are extremely variable in foliage, inflorescences and aromatic properties, and the distinctness of several of the species laid down even in recent works is still uncertain.

1 Phil. Trans. xxxvi. (1731) 107.

The bark which bears par excellence the name of Cassia or Cassia lignea, and which is distinguished on the Continent as Chinese Cinnamon, is a production of the provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi and Kweichau in Southern China. The French expedition of Lieut. Garnier for the exploration of the Mekong and of Cochin China (1866-68) found cassia growing in about N. lat. 19° in the forests of the valley of the Se Ngum, one of the affluents on the left bank of the Mekong near the frontiers of Annam. A part of this cassia is carried by land into China, while another part is conveyed to Bangkok.' Although it is customary to refer it without hesitation to a tree named Cinnamomum Cassia, we find no warrant for such reference: no competent observer has visited and described the cassia-yielding districts of China proper, and brought therefrom the specimens requisite for ascertaining the botanical origin of the bark.2

3

Cassia lignea is also produced in the Khasya mountains in Eastern Bengal, whence it is brought down to Calcutta for shipment. In this region there are three species of Cinnamomum, growing at 1000 to 4000 feet above the sea-level, and all have bark with the flavour of cinnamon, more or less pure: they are C. obtusifolium Nees, C. pauciflorum Nees, and C. Tamala Fr. Nees et Eberm.

Cinnamomum iners Reinw., a very variable species occurring in Continental India, Ceylon, Tavoy, Java, Sumatra and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, and possibly in the opinion of Thwaites a mere variety of C. zeylanicum, but according to Meissner well distinguished by its paler, thinner leaves, its nervation, and the character of its aroma, would appear to yield the cassia bark or wild cinnamon of Southern India.1

C. Tamala Fr. Nees et Eberm., which besides growing in Khasya is found in the contiguous regions of Silhet, Sikkim, Nepal, and Kumaon, and even reaches Australia, probably affords some cassia bark in Northern India.

Large quantities of a thick sort of cassia have at times been imported from Singapore and Batavia, much of which is produced in Sumatra. In the absence of any very reliable information as to its botanical sources, we may suggest as probable mother-plants, C. Cassia Bl. and C. Burmanni Bl., var. a. chinense, both stated by Teijsmann and Binnendijk to be cultivated in Java. The latter species, growing also in the Philippines, most probably affords the cassia bark which is shipped from Manila.

5

History-In the preceding article we have indicated (p. 520) the remote period at which cassia bark appears to have been known to the Chinese; and have stated the reasons that led us to believe the cin

1 Thorel, Notes médicales du Voyage d'Exploration du Mékonget de Cochinchine, Paris, 1870. 30.-Garnier, Voyage en Indo-Chine, ii. (Paris, 1873) 438.

2 The greatest market in China for cassia and cinnamon according to Dr. F. Porter Smith, is Taiwu in Ping-nan hien (Sin-chau fu), in Kwangsi province.-Mat. Med, and Nat. Hist. of China, 1871. 52.-The capital of Kwangsi is Kweilin fu, literally CassiaForest.

3 Hooker, Himalayan Journals, ed. 2. ii. (1855) 303.

A specimen of the stem-bark of C. iners from Travancore, presented to us by Dr. Waring, has a delightful odour, but is quite devoid of the taste of cinnamon.

5 Catalogues Plantarum quæ in Horto Botanico Bogoriensi coluntur, Batavia, 1866.

92.

namon of the ancients was that substance. It must, however, be observed that Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Pliny, Strabo and others, as well as the remarkable inscription on the temple of Apollo at Miletus, represent cinnamon and cassia as distinct, but nearly allied substances. While, on the other hand, the author of the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea, in enumerating the products shipped from the various commercial ports of Eastern Africa' in the first century, mentions Cassia (kaoia or Kaoria) of various kinds, but never employs the word C'innamon (κινναμώμον).

In the list of productions of India on which duty was levied at the Roman custom house at Alexandria, circa A.D. 176-180, Cinnamomum is mentioned as well as Cassia turiana, Xylocassia and Xylocinnamomum.2 Of the distinction here drawn between cinnamon and cassia we can give no explanation; but it is worthy of note that twigs and branches of a Cinnamomum are sold in the Chinese drug shops, and may not improbably be the xylocassia or xylocinnamon of the ancients. The name Cassia lignea would seem to have been originally bestowed on some such substance, rather than as at present on a mere bark. The spice was also undoubtedly called Cassia syrinx and Cassia fistularis (p. 221),— names which evidently refer to a bark which had the form of a tube. In fact there may well have been a diversity of qualities, some perhaps very costly. It is remarkable that such is still the case in China, and that the wealthy Chinese employ a thick variety of cassia, the price of which is as much as 18 dollars per catty, or about 56s. per lb.1

Whether the Aromata Cassia, which were presented to the Church at Rome under St. Silvester, A.D. 314-335, was the modern cassia bark, is rather doubtful. The largest donation, 200 lb., which was accompanied by pepper, saffron, storax, cloves, and balsam, would appear to have arrived from Egypt. Cassia seems to have been known in Western Europe as early as the 7th century, for it is mentioned with cinnamon by St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville. Cassia is named in one of the Leech-books in use in England prior to the Norman conquest. The spice was then sold in London as Canel in 1264, at 10d. per lb., sugar being at the same time 12d., cumin 2d., and ginger 18d. In the Boke of Nurture," written in the 15th century by John Russell, chamberlain to Humphry, duke of Gloucester, cassia is spoken of as

1 Vincent, Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean, ii. (1807) 130. 134. 149. 150. 157.-That the ancients should confound the different kinds of cassia is really no matter for surprise, when we moderns, whether botanists, pharmacologists, or spice-dealers, are unable to point out characters by which to distinguish the barks of this group, or even to give definite names to those found in our warehouses. 2 Vincent, op. cit. ii. 701-716.

3 See further on, Allied Products, Cassia twigs, page 533.

Very fine specimens of this costly bark have been kindly supplied to us by Dr. H. F. Hance, British Vice-Consul at Whampoa. Vignolius, Liber Pontificalis, Romæ, i. (1724) 94. 95.

5

6

Migne, Patrologia Cursus, lxxxii. (1850) 622. St. Isidore evidently quotes Galen, but his remarks imply that both spices were know at the period when he wrote.

7 Cockayne, Leechdoms, etc., of Early England, ii. (1865) 143.

8

Rogers, Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England, ii. (1866) 543.

9 The book has been reprinted for the Early English Text Society, 1868.-Russell says:-"Looke that your stikkes of synamome be thyn, bretille and fayre in colewr

for canelle is not so good in this crafte and cure."-And in his directions "how to make Ypocras," he prescribes synamome in that "for lordes," but "canelle" in that for " commyn peple."

resembling cinnamon, but cheaper and commoner, exactly as at the present day.

Production-We have no information whether the tree which affords the cassia bark of Southern China is cultivated, or whether it is exclusively found wild.

The Calcutta cassia bark collected in the Khasya mountains and brought to Calcutta is afforded by wild trees of small size. Dr. Hooker who visited the district with Dr. Thomson in 1850, observes that the trade in the bark is of recent introduction.1 The bark which varies much in thickness, has been scraped of its outer layer.

Cassia is extensively produced in Sumatra, as may be inferred from the fact that Padang in that island, exported of the bark in 1871, 6127 peculs (817,066 lb.), a large proportion of which was shipped to America. Regarding the collection of cassia on the Malabar coast, in Java and in the Philippines, no particular account has, so far as we know, been published. Spain imported from the Philippines by way of Cadiz in 1871, 93,000 lb. of cassia.

Description - Chinese Cassia lignea, otherwise called Chinese Cinnamon, which of all the varieties is that most esteemed, and approaching most nearly to Ceylon cinnamon, arrives in small bundles about a foot in length and a pound in weight, the pieces of bark being held together with bands of bamboo.

The bark has a general resemblance to cinnamon, but is in simple quills, not inserted one within the other. The quills moreover are less straight, even and regular, and are of a darker brown; and though some of the bark is extremely thin, other pieces are much stouter than fine cinnamon,-in fact, it is much less uniform. The outer coat has been removed with less care than that of Ceylon cinnamon, and pieces can easily be found with the corky layer untouched by the knife.

Cassia bark breaks with a short fracture. The thicker bark cut transversely shows a faint white line in the centre running parallel with the surface. Good cassia in taste resembles cinnamon, than which it is not less sweet and aromatic, though it is often described as less fine and delicate in flavour.

An unusual kind of cassia lignea is imported since 1870 from China and offered in the London market as China Cinnamon, though it is not the bark that bears this name in continental trade. The new drug is in unscraped quills, which are mostly of about the thickness of ordinary Chinese cassia lignea; it has a very saccharine taste and pungent cinnamon flavour.

The less esteemed kinds of cassia bark, which of late years have been poured into the market in vast quantity, are known in commerce as Cassia lignea, Cassia vera or Wild Cassia, and are further distinguished by the names of the localities whence shipped, as Calcutta, Java, Timor, etc.

The barks thus met with vary exceedingly in colour, thickness and aroma, so that it is vain to attempt any general classification. Some

1 Hooker, op. cit.

2 Consular Reports, August 1873. 953.
3 Consul Reade, Report on the Trade, etc.,

of Cadiz for 1871, where the spice is called cinnamon."

66

Fluckiger in Wiggers and Husemann's Jahresbericht for 1872. 52.

have a pale cinnamon hue, but most are of a deep rich brown. They present all variations in thickness, from that of cardboard to more than a quarter of an inch thick. The flavour is more or less that of cinnamon, often with some unpleasant addition suggestive of insects of the genus Cimex. Many, besides being aromatic, are highly mucilaginous, the mucilage being freely imparted to cold water. Finally, we have met with some thick cassia bark of good appearance that was distinguished by astringency and the almost entire absence of

aroma.

Microscopic Structure-A transverse section of such pieces of Chinese Cassia lignea as still bear the suberous envelope, exhibits the following characters. The external surface is made up of several rows of the usual cork-cells, loaded with brown colouring matter. In pieces from which the cork-cells have been entirely scraped, the surface is formed of the mesophloeum, yet by far the largest part of the bark belongs to the liberorendophloeum. Isolated liber-fibres and thick-walled cells (stone-cells) are scattered even through the outer layers of a transverse section. In the middle zone they are numerous, but do not form a coherent sclerenchymatous ring as in cinnamon (p. 526). The innermost part of the liber shares the structural character of cinnamon with differences due to age, as for instance the greater development of the medullary rays. Oil-cells and gum-ducts are likewise distributed in the parenchyme of the former.

The "China Cinnamon" of 1870 (p. 530) comes still nearer to Ceylon cinnamon, except that it is coated. A transverse section of a quill, not thicker than one millimetre, exhibits the three layers described as characterizing that bark. The sclerenchymatous ring is covered by a parenchyme rich in oil-ducts, so that it is obvious that the flavour of this drug could not be improved by scraping. The corky layer is composed of the usual tabular cells. The liber of this drug in fact agrees with that of Ceylon cinnamon.

In Cassia Barks of considerable thickness, the same arrangement of tissues is met with, but their strong development causes a certain dissimilarity. Thus the thick-walled cells are more and more separated one from another, so as to form only small groups. The same applies also to the liber-fibres, which in thick barks are surrounded by a parenchyme, loaded with considerable crystals of oxalate of calcium. gum-ducts are not larger, but are more numerous in these barks, which swell considerably in cold water.

The

Chemical Composition-Cassia bark owes its aromatic properties to an essential oil, which, in a chemical point of view, agrees with that of Ceylon cinnamon. The flavour of cassia oil is somewhat less agreeable, and as it exists in the less valuable sorts of cassia, decidedly different in aroma from that of cinnamon. We find the sp. gr. of a Chinese cassia oil to be 1066, and its rotatory power in a column 50 mm. long, only 0°1 to the right, differing consequently in this respect from that of cinnamon oil (p. 526).

Oil of cassia sometimes deposits a stearoptene, which when purified is a colourless, inodorous substance, crystallizing in shining brittle prisms. We have never met with it.

1 Rochleder and Schwarz (1850) in Gmelin's Chemistry, xvii. 395.