ÖÖI 8x 3 ^c- 0 - Acehbooks.org

•iz6 S U M A T R A .
fembling a cup. The trees grow from fifty to fixty feet high, with large,
fpreading, horizontal branches, almoft as low as the earth. The root is
faid to contain much camphire, that may be obtained by boiling or other
proceffes unknown on Sumatra. No pains is bellowed on the cultivation
of the caffia. The bark, which is the part in ufe, is commonly taken
from fuch of the trees as are a foot or eighteen inches diameter, for
when they are younger, it is faid to be fo thin, as to loofe all it's qualities
very foon. The difference of foil and fituation alters confiderably the
value of the bark. Thofe trees which grow in a high rocky foil, have
•Ted moots, and the bark is fuperior to that which is produced in a
moifr clay, where the moots are green. I have been allured by a perfon
of extenfive knowledge, that the caffia produced on Sumatra, is from the
fame tree which yields the true cinnamon, and that the apparent difference
arifes from the lefs judicious manner of quilling it. Perhaps the
younger and more tender branches fhould be preferred ; perhaps the age
of the tree, or the feafon of the year ought to be more nicely attended
to ; and laftly I have known it to be fuggefted, that the mucilaginous
•flime which adheres to the inlide of the frelh peeled rind, does, when not
carefully wiped off, injure the flavor of the caffia, and render it inferior
to that of the cinnamon. I am informed that it has been purchafed by
'Dutch merchants at our India fales, where it fometimes fold to much
lofs, and afterwards by them lhipped for Spain, as cinnamon, being
packed in boxes which had come from Ceylon with that article.
Rattans (rotan) furnifh annually many large cargoes, chiefly from the
eaftcrn fide of the ifland, where the Dutch buy them to fend to Europe;
and the country traders, for the weflern parts of India. Canes alfo, of
various kinds, are procured in the ports which open to the ftraits of
Malacca.
In almoft every part of the country two fpecies of cotton are culti­
vated, namely, the annual fort (gojjyphim herbaceum), and the fhrub cot­
ton (gojjypium arboreum). The cotton procured from both appears to be
of very good quality, and might, with encouragement, be procured in
any