The trees yielding cassia or Chinese cinnamon are of several undetermined species cultivated in China and India. According to Charles Ford (Jour. Linn. Soc., 1882), the Cinnamomum Cassia of Blume yields the true cassia bark of the Chinese. Many other species have been thought, however, to yield a portion of this bark. Chinese cinnamon proper is the product of a wild tree growing in Annam, and should not be confused with cassia cinnamon. It never occurs in our commerce, being consumed entirely in China, to which country it is exported. The cassia barks from Sumatra and Java, the latter being of excellent quality, are said to be the products of Cinnamomum Cassia, Blume, and Cinnamomum Burmanni, Blume. Indian cassia is derived in part, at least, from several species of India, which are by many botanists considered but varieties of the Ceylon cinnamon tree. They are the Cinnamomum Tamala, C. nitidum, and C. iners. Cinnamomum Burmanni var. Kiamis yields Massoy-bark. The botanical source of Saigon cinnamon is unknown. In fact the source of the species yielding cassia bark is but little known, excepting that of the Ceylonese bark.
Cassia bark does not come in commerce with the quills telescoped (in the form of quills within quills) like the Ceylon bark. They are usually single, though sometimes double, and are tied together in bundles with bamboo. It is gathered from March to May from trees of about the sixth year’s growth. The branches after being cut, are carried to a building where the shoots, after being deprived of leaves and twigs, are twice cut longitudinally through the bark, after which cross-incisions are made at intervals of about 16 inches. The bark is then detached by a curved horn-knife, and while still pliable is laid inner surface downward, and the epidermis detached with a plane. It is then dried for a day, and tied in bundles of about the diameter of the length of the pieces (Ford).
Cassia cinnamon is, in fact, a mixture of a variety of different qualities of cinnamon. It is generally met with in cylindrical rolls or quills of various sizes, from 2 to 12 lines in diameter, or in semi-tubular segments, 12 to 18 inches long, with the external layer much thicker than that of cinnamon; externally more of a dark red, traversed with thicker and more shining, straight or serpentine veins; more fibrous and paler in fracture; internal layer coarsely fibrous; heavier and more compact, with an odor similar to that of cinnamon, but not so strong or agreeable, and a corresponding taste more acrid, burning, and lasting, and at the same time mucilaginous. It is used in tinctures instead of cinnamon, and is the kind usually sold as cinnamon.
Saigon cinnamon comes in unscraped pieces or quills. Java cinnamon may resemble the Ceylon variety, though its flavor is not considered so fine; or it may resemble the better grades of cassia cinnamon, though its flavor is of a better quality. Cayenne cinnamon is somewhat mucilaginous, and is of a reddish hue.
Cinnamomum zeylanicum, Breyne (Laurus Cinnamomum, Linné).—This tree has a rough bark, and grows from 15 to 25 feet or more high, having a trunk from 1 to 1½ feet in diameter. Its branches are somewhat 4-cornered, and smooth; the leaves are ovate, or ovate-oblong, from 6 to 9 inches long, 2 or 3 inches broad, tapering into an obtuse point, triple-nerved, reticulated on the under side, smooth, with the uppermost the smallest, opposite, and coriaceous. Its flowers are small, hoary, silky, and white; the segments oblong and deciduous in the middle; the panicles are terminal and axillary, and stalked (L.—Ed.—P.).
Cinnamomum zeylanicum is a native of Ceylon, Sumatra, Borneo, etc., and is cultivated in many parts of both the new and old world. The bark is the official part; it has the odor peculiar to cinnamon, and an agreeable, warm, aromatic flavor, with a mild degree of sweetness. The leaves are similar in taste and odor, but less powerful, and contain a volatile oil, which may be procured by distillation. The odor of the flowers is to most people disagreeable, like newly-sawn bones (Ed.). The tree throws out no fragrance beyond its immediate sphere. The bark is the true cinnamon of commerce. It is usually collected from trees about 9 years old. The plant is kept pruned in such a manner that the shrub forms “stools,” and from these a few shoots are produced, which, when about 2 years old, or just as the corky layer begins to appear (the bark beginning to change to a brown color), are cut, deprived of their leaves, and prepared for market. The peeling of the shoots and branches commences in May, and continues until the latter part of October. The bark is freed from its epidermis, and then dried, first in the shade, and afterward under exposure to the sun; it curls in drying into quills, which are subsequently placed within each other, as they will admit. The best bark comes from Ceylon, and is in the form of rolls about ½ inch in diameter, and from 30 to 40 inches long, and composed of many quills within each other. The fragments of bark obtained in preparing the shoots are sold in the market as cinnamon chips. Cinnamon quills have a light-yellow color, and are thin, smooth, shining, a little thicker than cartridge paper, and break readily with a splintery fracture, being easily pulverizable. They possess a rich, pure, peculiar odor, and a warm, spicy, sweetish, and agreeable taste, and yield their virtues to water, but more readily to alcohol or spirits. A small amount of volatile oil may be procured from it by distillation. The thick, dark-brown, and feebly-flavored bark is of an inferior quality. Cinnamon is often adulterated with the poorer sorts, and likewise with the bark after having been deprived of its oil.