cinnamon regulations, may now be very easily obtained from proprietors of grounds producing that spice.  Cinnamon is barked at two periods of the year, between April and December.  Those suckers which are considered fit for cutting, are usually about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, and five feet or more long.  The first operation is to strip them of the outside pellicle of bark.  The twigs are then ripped up lengthwise with the point of a knife, and the liber or inner bark gradually loosened, till it can be entirely taken off.  While drying they are cut up into long narrow rolls, called “quills,” then stuck into one another, so as to form pipes about three or four feet long, which are afterwards made up in round bundles.

During the first day the cinnamon is suspended under shelter upon open platforms, and on the second day it is placed on wicker-work shelves, and exposed to the sun until sufficiently dry to be examined and sorted for shipment.

It is brought home in bags or bales of 80 or 90 lbs. weight, and classed before export into three sorts; first, second, and third quality.  The different kinds of cinnamon bark may be thus classified, according to quality—­

1.  That which ranks above all others in quality, is known by the Singhalese name of penne or rasse kuroondu, sharp sweet, or honey cinnamon.

2. Naya kuroondu, snake cinnamon.

3. Kapoorn kuroondu, camphorated cinnamon, from the very strong smell of camphor which it possesses.  This variety is principally obtained from the plantations of the interior.

4. Kahate or canalle kuroondu, astringent cinnamon.  In this species the bark peels off very easily, and smells agreeably when fresh, but it has a bitter taste.

5. Savel kuroondu, mucilaginous or glutinous cinnamon.  This sort acquires a very considerable degree of hardness, which the chewing of it sufficiently proves.  It has otherwise little taste, and an ungrateful smell; but the color is very fine, and it is often mixed with the first and best sort; the color being much alike, excepting only that in the good sort some few yellowish spots appear towards the extremities.

6. Dawool kuroondu, or drum cinnamon.  The wood of this tree, when grown hard, is light and tough, and the natives make some of their vessels and drums of it.  The bark is of a pale color.

7. Nika kuroondu, wild cinnamon, whose leaf resembles that of the nicasol (Vitex Negundo).  The bark of this tree has neither taste or smell when peeled, and is made use of by the natives only in physic, and to extract an oil from to anoint their bodies.

8. Mal kuroondu, flowering cinnamon, because this tree is always in blossom.  The substance of the wood never becomes so solid and weighty in this as in the other named species, which are sometimes nine or ten feet in circumference.  If this ever-flowering cinnamon be cut or bored, a limpid water will issue out of the wound; but it is of use only for the leaves and bark.