Wockwalla proved to be a hill from which there was a fine view of rice-fields and tropical forests, and a pretty river winding through them. With an eye to business some one had built a refreshment-stand on the top of the hill, and a notice was posted that all who did not patronize the establishment would be expected to pay for the privilege of sitting on the balcony. As the day was warm, it was promptly decided that lemonades would be in order, and they were speedily prepared. Mangoes and two or three other kinds of fruit were brought, and an hour was passed very pleasantly in the contemplation of the attractions of Wockwalla, which were not altogether confined to the scenery. [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE CINNAMON GARDENS.] The return to Galle was by a different route, which led them by the cinnamon gardens, where a fee was charged for looking at the trees. Some of the natives stripped off a portion of the bark of one of the trees, and allowed the boys to taste and smell it to make sure that it was cinnamon and nothing else. It was not the season of gathering the bark, and consequently they were unable to witness the process of obtaining the spice, which forms an important export to Europe and America. While they were wandering about the gardens, and looking at the trees, the Doctor told the boys about the plant they were studying. "You see," said he, "that the trees are from fifteen to thirty feet high, and when you stand half a dozen yards away the strong perfume that rises from them is plainly perceptible. The scientific men call it the _Laurus cinnamomum_, and it was known to the ancients long before the beginning of the Christian era; it is a native of Ceylon, and it is said that there are not far from 15,000 acres of ground in the island devoted to its culture. The trees are grown from seed, and when they are eight years old they begin to yield the cinnamon of commerce, and they continue to yield it till they have passed a hundred years. An acre of ground well planted with good trees will give not less than 400 pounds of cinnamon in a year, and sometimes as much as 500 pounds. "The bark is stripped off in pieces about forty inches long, and is then fermented till the outer skin separates from the inner, which is the one that is wanted. Then the inner skin is dried in the sun very slowly, and it is this drying that makes it curl up in the way you see it in the stores at home. It does not require a rich soil for its production, and many of the cinnamon gardens of Ceylon are on sandy land that would not easily produce anything else." Frank asked if all the cinnamon used in the world came from the island of Ceylon.