Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tree allied to the laurels. It is indigenous to Ceylon and the Penang Islands although believed by some authorities to have originally come from China, where it has flourished since the remotest times. As it is mentioned in the Old Testament it is conjectured that the Hebrews obtained it from the Arabians who in turn procured it from India. Later it was mentioned by Herodotus. 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. The shoots, which grow in clusters of from four to ten, are cut to the roots twice a year, after the rains. The epidermis is peeled off, the bark is put up in bundles about forty inches long and thus dried and marketed. Three grades are exported, the finest, thin, of a brownish yellow color, fragrant and sweet of odor and correspondingly high of price. It is also adulterated with cassia bark, a cheaper production. Cassia is the inner bark of a species of cinnamon called Chinese cinnamon or _cassia lignea_. The greater part of it is exported from China. The bark is put up in bundles about half the length of cinnamon bark and is more pungent and less sweet of flavor. Cassia buds are the unripened fruits of the tree which produces Chinese cassia. In shape and size they resemble cloves, in aroma, cinnamon, and are usually preserved whole for sweetmeats or spices. Cassia is mentioned by Moses as an ingredient of the holy oil, in Psalms as a perfume and in Ezekiel as a spice. Allspice, sometimes called Jamaica pepper and properly, _pimento_, is native to the Island of Jamaica and has not been successfully cultivated outside of the West Indies. The pimento tree is an evergreen of the myrtlebloom family, all of which are exotic trees, and reaches a height of thirty feet. The allspice of commerce consists of the berries of this tree, exported whole after being dried, and so called because their aroma resembles that of cloves, cinnamon, juniper and nutmeg. The berries are gathered when green, being left on the twigs until dried by the sun, by which means all the essential oil is retained. [Illustration: Cassia Buds.] [Illustration: Nutmeg.]