Cinnabar

“ The name for wild cinnabar among the ancient Peruvians; it was employed by them for painting the body and drawing figures on the face and arms.
Yellow. One of the three primary colours; producing with green, blue; and with red, orange. The principal yellow pigments are gamboge (bluish) , gold ochre (reddish) , yellow ochre, Naples yellow, chrome yellow, lemon yellow, Indian yellow, gall-stone, Roman ochre, Mars yellow, terra di Siena, Italian pink, cadmium yellow, &c.
Yellow, in Christian art, or gold, was the symbol of the sun ”

“ It is unlikely that the original inhabitants of this country knew anything of cinnamon until they had heard of its commercial value from the natives of India or Arabs, who have been known to the coastal people from the earliest times. These same traders, if they penetrated into the interior at all, which is extremely doubtful, would have hunted for anything of any commercial value, and if cinnamon had existed they would have continued to export it up to the present day as they do frankincense, myrrh and gum arabic. ”

“ The bark is very thin and of a lighter brown color than that of the Saigon cinnamon.
Nearly all of the cinnamon of the market is obtained from cultivated plants. There are large plantations in southeastern China, Cochin-China, India, Sunda islands, Sumatra, Java and other tropical countries and islands. In many instances little or nothing is known regarding the cultivation, collecting and curing of cinnamons. As a rule the trees are pruned for convenience in collecting the bark. In the better-grade cinnamons the bark from the younger twigs only (11⁄2 to 2 years old) is collected. ”

“ In the perfectly white soil around the city of Colombo, the cinnamon tree flourishes as well as, if not better than, in any other place in the world. It requires much practice to become a skillful peeler of cinnamon, but Comale, having been taught by his father, and being moreover a careful, observing lad, was fast attaining a degree of success in his trade. Formerly the Cingalese had allowed the cinnamon trees to grow to their natural height, about twenty or thirty feet, and naturally the cinnamon bark from such trees had been tough. ”

“ It is known that Hippocrates used cinnamon medicinally and the modern medical world has but recently made the discovery that oil of cinnamon is a valuable antiseptic and germicide. Not until 1506 was cinnamon discovered wild in Ceylon and not until 1770 was it improved by cultivation. The tree grows to a height of twenty and occasionally thirty feet, although, as the bark from the young shoots is of finer flavor, that only is used. Cinnamon shrubs are cultivated in fields, the finest being located in the region of Colombo, Ceylon. ”

“ How says of the cinnamon, that one sort of it is not inferior to that imported from the East Indies. Some of the former brought to England fetched a better price than the latter. He has seen the real cinnamon both at Bombay and Cambay, brought there as presents from Ceylon, and says, that the bark, leaves, and whole structure of the tree are alike in Africa and the East Indies. He has no doubt whatever but that [2] spices in general might be cultivated with great success in the African soil and climate. ”

“ Here, and at several other places in the interior, I have seen young trees of a species of cinnamon, kayu manis, or “sweet wood” of the Malays. Its leaves and bark have a considerable aroma, but it is not the true cinnamon of Ceylon, nor that of Cochin China nor China. Cinnamons of one or more species occur also in Java, Borneo, Luzon, and Magindanao. As our carriage needed repairing, and both the inspector [426] and I were becoming fatigued, we therefore rested at this place for a day. ”

“ CINNAMON BALLS 1 cupful sirup 2 cupfuls sugar 1 tablespoonful butter 1/8 teaspoonful salt 1 tablespoonful water 1 tablespoonful vinegar 1 tablespoonful ground cinnamon or 2 drops of oil of cinnamon
Put all the ingredients except oil of cinnamon into a saucepan and boil to the crack stage. If oil of cinnamon is used for flavoring, add it to the mixture after cooking. Pour into a greased pan. When cool enough to handle, take a small portion and shape it into a ball. If the candy becomes too stiff to shape, it may be placed in an oven until it is soft enough to handle. ”

“ Cinnamon is also to be found here, especially in the island of Mindanao, where a Page 43large quantity of it is gathered on the headland called Quavit,4 and in Samboaga and other parts of the said island. In some places we have seen pepper trees and other drugs which the natives do not value or cultivate—from which, with care and cultivation, they might derive and obtain profit.
At present cinnamon is the only article in the land from which we can derive profit; for, as I have said above, the gold supply will always be small until the mines are worked. ”

“ The finest is taken from young trees; a coarser sort from the old ones; and the third is the wild cinnamon, or cassia, which grows not only in Ceylon, but in Malabar and China, and of late years in Brazil. The company also derives great profit from an essential oil drawn from cinnamon, which sells at a high price; and it also makes considerable gain by the precious stones found in this island, being rubies, white and blue sapphires, topazes, and others. ”

“ It is impossible to discover the cause or causes by means of which different qualities are produced from the same branch, since the shoots and the same tree are found to yield cinnamon of different qualities. The quality of a cinnamon tree is often determined by the size of the leaves, as well as by tasting the inner bark; the larger the leaf the better bark the tree will afford. The quality of the bark varies very much with local conditions, some being so inferior as to be harvested only for the purpose of adulterations. ”

“ It is estimated that the world’s production of true cinnamon does not exceed 400,000,000 pounds, while an equal amount of cassia is collected chiefly in China and the East Indies. Cinnamon is not an article which enters into the daily food of the masses of the people, and the consumption does not increase with a low price or decrease when the price is high. The present consumption does not equal one pound to each 500 inhabitants of the earth. ”

“ And I must observe, that in all the specimens in the British Museum I could observe no difference of species. But this is to be understood, that every sort coming from Ceylon is, by the Dutch and by the shops, called Cinnamon; and that of our own growth is by them always called Cassia. The reason is obvious.
The specimens, which I now produce, of the Canella or bark of the Cinnamon of Sumatra, I procured in the year 1755. from Mr. Tho. Combes, a gentleman then in the service of the East India Company in Sumatra, by means of a friend. ”

“ Of these, the bird-cherries (like damsons) are made into an excellent preserve by the English residents, who also make capital cherry-brandy of them: the trade in cinnamon is of recent introduction, and is much encouraged by the Inglis family, to whose exertions these people are so greatly indebted; the cinnamon is the peeled bark of a small species of Cinnamomum allied to that of Ceylon, and though inferior in flavour and mucilaginous (like cassia) , finds a ready market at Calcutta. It has been used to adulterate the Ceylon cinnamon ”

“ Ernest.—And the mastich, father?
Father.—This production comes from a tree of the same name; it oozes out in drops and hardens in the sun, something like amber. It is used in perfumes, and as a varnish for porcelain, being soluble in spirits of wine. As to cinnamon, I can only tell you that the best sort is a production of the island of Ceylon; it is gathered from young plants; the outside covering being first taken away, the next coat is the perfect cinnamon, and its smell is quite delicious; it is put to dry in the sun, and it rolls of itself into the shapes in which you must have seen it ”

“ Nicolo Conti, speaking of the “very noble island called Zeilan,” says (p. 7) : “Here also cinnamon grows in great abundance. It is a tree which very much resembles our thick willows, excepting that the branches do not grow upwards, but are spread out horizontally: the leaves are very like those of the laurel, but are somewhat larger. The bark of the branches is the thinnest and best, that of the trunk of the tree is thicker and inferior in flavour. The fruit resembles the berries of the laurel; an odoriferous oil is extracted from it adapted for ointments, which are much used by the Indians. ”

“ For whatever we read concerning the native soil of the spices has been told us by ancient authors, and is partly, certainly, fabulous; and, partly, so far from the truth, that even the very countries in which they said that they grew naturally, are but little less distant from those where it is now known that they grow, than we are. For to omit others, Herodotus, in other respects a most famed author, has said that cinnamon is found in birds' nests, to which the birds have brought it from most distant regions, and specially the Phœnix, and I know not who has seen his nest. ”

“ In the afternoon we drove through the far-famed cinnamon-gardens, which cover upward of seventeen thousand acres of land on the coast, the largest of which are near Colombo. The plant thrives best in a poor, sandy soil, in a damp atmosphere. It grows wild in the woods to the size of an apple-tree, but when cultivated is never allowed to grow more than ten or twelve feet in hight, each plant standing separate. The leaf is something like the laurel in shape, but of a lighter color. When it first shoots out it is red, and changes gradually to green. ”

“ At a low temperature it becomes turbid by the deposit of a camphor, which we have not examined. The oil easily absorbs oxygen, becoming thereby contaminated with resin and cinnamic acid, C6H5 (CH) 2COOH. [Pg 527]
Cinnamon contains sugar, mannite, starch, mucilage, and tannic 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. ”

“ THE Cinnamon, Cassia, or Canella, are shrubs of no great height: they grow in Ceylon, Malabar, Java, Sumatra, and other places in the East Indies; as I think, in the island of St. Thomas, and on the coast of Coromandel.
They are described by Mr. Ray, in his History of Plants, vol. ii. f. 1559. under the title de Arboribus Pruniferis.
Philos. Trans. Vol. L. Tab. XXXVI. p. 860.
J. Mynde. sc.
Linnæus, in his Species Plantarum, places them under the title Enneandria Monogynia, by the name Laurus.
The leaf, flower, and fruit, of this plant, are particularly described by Mr. Ray. ”

“ Cinnamon is much used as a condiment for its pleasant flavor, and its astringent properties are of medicinal value. It is cultivated largely in Ceylon. The cinnamon tree is too tender to become of commercial importance in the United States. Isolated plants may be found in southern Florida, at least it is so stated, but the area suited to its growth must be very limited.
120. Cissampelos pareira.—The velvet plant of tropical countries. The root furnishes the Pareira brava of druggists, which is used in medicine. ”

“ Its true color is a dun or dull brown that has been likened to cinnamon. In exhibition birds the color is usually intensified by color feeding (see p. 14) . The cinnamon canary is peculiar also in possessing red or pink eyes, a character that denotes cinnamon blood even in a yellow or buff bird. The cinnamon inheritance is transmitted only by the male; young reared from a cinnamon mother and a male of any other form lacking cinnamon blood never show signs of their cinnamon parentage. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The bark of C. zeylanicum, and that of several uncultivated species of Cinnamonum, which produce the cassia, or Chinese cassia, have been an important article of commerce from a very early period. Flückiger and Hanbury700 have treated of this historical question with so much learning and thoroughness, that we need only refer to their work, entitled Pharmacographia, or History of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin. It is important from our point of view to note how modern the culture is of the cinnamon tree in comparison with the trade in its product. ”

“ For some years past cinnamon has been cultivated with success in several parts of the New Continent; and a zone that produces the coumarouna, the vanilla, the pucheri, the pine-apple, the pimento, the balsam of tolu, the Myroxylon peruvianum, the croton, the citroma, the pejoa, the incienso of the Silla of Caracas, the quereme, the pancratium, and so many majestic liliaceous plants, cannot be considered as destitute of aromatics. Besides, a dry air favours the development of the aromatic or exciting properties, only in certain species of plants. ”