Flora Medica

LAURACE^;.*Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 200.CINNAMOMUM.Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamous, panicled or fascicled,naked. Calyx 6-cleft ;with the limb deciduous. Fertile stamens9, in 3 rows ;the 3 inner with 2 sessile glands at the base ;anthers 4-celled, the 3 inner turned outwards. Three capitateabortive stamens next the centre. Fruit seated in a cup-likecalyx. Leaves ribbed. Leaf buds not scaly.%* No question was ever more vexed with doubts and difficultiesthan that which relates to the trees producing the different kinds ofCinnamon. I follow the elaborate paper of Dr. Blume, as being thenewest as well as the most complete account of these trees, so far as hehas examined them.673. C. zeylanicum Nees Laur. 45. Nees and Eberm. handb.ii. 420. Laurus Cinnamomum Linn. sp. pi. 528. L. CassiaBot. t.Mag. 1636. C. nitidum Nees laurin. 43. not Hooker.Ceylon, Java ;cultivated inmany parts of both the new and oldworld.Branches somewhat 4-cornered, smooth. Leaves ovate or ovateoblong,tapering into an obtuse point, triple-nerved or 3-nerved,reticulated on the under side, smooth, the uppermost the smallest.Panicles terminal and axillary, stalked. Flowers hoary and silky;segments oblong, deciduous in the middle. This is the true CeylonCinnamon, furnishing bark of the best quality. It varies, however,according to the season of the year when it is collected. It is theplant usually called Laurus Cassia in the gardens, where also it is sometimesfound under the name of Laurus Cinnamomum and Cinnamomumaromaticum.674. C. zeylanicum, var. Cassia Nees Laurin. 47. LaurusCassia Linn. syst. nat. ed. Hall. a. 1760. p. 1010. Cassia ligneaBlackw. herb. t. 391. Apparently naturalised on the continentof India.Leaves oblong or ellipticalmuch tapering to the point, acute at thebase ;otherwise the same as C. zeylanicum. Nees v. Esenbeck regardsthis, the plant that produces the Cassia lignea, as a degeneratevariety of C. zeylanicum, palmed off upon foreigners as true Cinnamonby the Dutch when they held Ceylon, and thus carried to the continentof India, where it has naturalised itself.* The characters of almost all the plants of this order are taken from the excellentSystema Laurinarum of the President C. G. Nees von Esenbeck.329