CINNAMON  , the inner bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum, a small

evergreen tree belonging to the natural order Lauraceae, native to Ceylon . The leaves are large, ovate-oblong in shape, and the flowers, which are arranged in panicles, have a greenish colour and a rather disagreeable odour . Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity, and it was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a present fit for monarchs and other great potentates . It is mentioned in Exod. xxx . 23, where Moses is commanded to use both sweet cinnamon (Kinnamon) and cassia, and it is alluded to by Herodotus under the name Kivvapwpov, and by other classical writers . The tree is grown at Tellicherry, in Java, the West Indies, Brazil and Egypt, but the produce of none of these places approaches in quality that grown in Ceylon . Ceylon cinnamon of fine quality is a very thin smooth bark, with a light-yellowish brown colour, a highly fragrant odour, and a peculiarly sweet, warm and pleasing aromatic taste . Its flavour is due to an aromatic oil which it contains to the extent of from o•5 to I % . This essential oil, as an article of commerce, is prepared by roughly pounding the bark, macerating it in sea-water, and then quickly distilling the whole . It is of a golden-yellow colour, with the peculiar odour of cinnamon and a very hot aromatic taste . It consists essentially of cinnamic aldehyde, and by the absorption of oxygen as it becomes old it darkens in colour and develops resinous compounds . Cinnamon is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavouring material, being largely used in the preparation of some kinds of chocolate and liqueurs .

In

medicine it acts like other volatile oils and has a reputation as a cure for colds . Being a much more costly spice than cassia, that comparatively harsh-flavoured substance is frequently substituted for or added to it . The two barks when whole are easily enough distinguished, and their microscopical characters are also quite distinct . When powdered bark is treated with tincture of iodine, little effect is visible in the case of pure cinnamon of good quality, but when cassia is present a deep-blue tint is produced, the intensity of the coloration depending on the proportion of the cassia . CINNAMON-STONE, a variety of garnet, belonging to the lime-alumina type, known also as essonite or hessonite, from the Gr. iavwv, " inferior," in allusion to its being less hard and less dense than most other garnet . It has a characteristic red colour, inclining to orange, much like that of hyacinth or jacinth . Indeed it was shown many years ago, by Sir A . H . Church, that many gems, especially engraved stcnes, commonly regarded as hyacinth, were really cinnamon-stone . The difference is readily detected by the specific gravity, that of hessonite being 3.64 to 3.69, whilst that of hyacinth (zircon) is about 4.6 . Hessonite is rather a soft stone, its hardness being about that of quartz or 7, whilst the hardness of most garnet reaches 7•5 . Cinnamon-stone comes chiefly from Ceylon, where it is found generally as pebbles, though its occurrence in its native matrix is not unknown .