denarii, or £ .¡2 . 5. 10. The Dapbnoides, oxlfocinnamon, feems
not to be thought the genuine kind, yet fold at the price of
three hundred denarii, or £. 8. 13. 9, the fame price as the
true cinnamon. The Cinnamomum camocans was the expreffed
juice o f a nut, and perhaps a different article from the true cinnamon,
was fold for no more than forty affes, or two fhillings
and feven-pence. The antients, according to Pliny, efteemed,
as we do at prefent, the cinnamon o f the young twigs. It was
Chiefly made ufe o f as a perfume, either as an ingredient for
their unguents, or to rub their bodies with, in form o f oil.
They appear to have been ignorant of the tree that produced it,
as well as the country; they fuppofed that it came from that
part of jt.Ethiopia which bordered on the ‘troglodytes. Pliny fays
they bought all they could of their neighbors; but even Mr.
Bruce, who would certainly do all the honor he could to /Ethiopia,
never mentions it among his botanical enumerations. Pliny
talks confufedly of a long voyage made with the cargoes o f this
pretious article, and of the crofling of vaft feas : o f the cinnamon
being under the protection of the god AJfabinus, and of
its never being cut without his permiflion. I dare fay that the
Cinnamon and CaJJia came then as it does now, from the Malabar
coaft, and 1aprobone or Ceylon, and that the merchants
crofling the Sinus JEtbiopicus in fearch o f it, induced the Roman
Naturalift to make Mtbiopia its native country *.
T h e antients g iv e a molt romantic account o f thefe trees,
th at o f th eir b e in g guarded b y a dire fpecies o f bat, figh t in g
c ru e lly w ith th eir lharp claws 5 and b y fly in g ferp en ts; one was
* Pliny, in lib. xii. c. xix. and other parts of his Nat. Hift. treats largely of this tree.
the
the enormous bat o f the torrid zone ; the others, the winged
lizard, before defcribed.
Its modern ufe for culinary purpofes is unknown to none.
Cinnamon-water is alio a fine liqueur. From the leaves is extracted
a thick and fragrant juice, appropriated for the candles
o f his imperial Majelty o f Ceylon ; and from the roots is ex-
traded the oil of camphire, and a fort o f camphire fuperior to
what we have in the lhops, which likewife is relerved for the
Emperor, who efieems it an excellent cordial. Seba, in Ph.
Tranf. abr. vi. 326,' from whom we have the account, fpeaks
highly of its virtue in arthritic cafes. The bark, and effential
oil, is an article in our difpenfary.
I now naturally pafs to the L aurus. Cajfta, the rival to the Laurds
laft. It is the cama of Rheede Malab. i. 107, tab. 59, Burman Cassia<
Ind. 91, Blackmail, tab. 3r 9. I leave to botartifts the fettling o f
the difpute, whether it is diftind, or a variety of the laft.
The diftindion between the bark of this and the real cinnamon,
is, that this breaks fmooth; the real, fplinters. This
has a flimy mucilaginous tafte; the true cinnamon, rough,
and with a rich aromatic fmell.
Occidentale, Rumph. i. tab. 69, is common to Eajl and Weft Akacamjom.
Indies. It is the Cujhew o f the laft, the Caghu o f the Ceylon
efe.
Heptaphylla,— iv. tab. 22, would be invaluable, was it not fo Sophora.
common; it i.s the molt admirable medicine in the cholera, and
the cholerafluxus, bilious complaints, exceflive vomiting, pleu-
rifies, and poifon : it is remarkable for its links o f berries, con-
neded like beads. ~
® S 2 tomentofa,