the rate of 3s. per lb. on all qualities.  From the 19th April, 1835, it was fixed at 3s. per lb. on the best, and 2s. on the second quality.  It was reduced in January, 1837, to 2s. 6d. on the first and second sorts, and 2s. on the third; and in June, 1841, to 2s. on all qualities; in 1843, to 1s.; and in September, 1848, to 4d. per lb.  Such a rate of export duty could be maintained only on an article for which there was a considerable demand, and which could not be supplied from other places, and this was for a long time the case.  The circumstances are now different, and the abolition of the duty, which has so repeatedly been brought under the notice of the Treasury, has at length been determined on.  The quantity of cinnamon, &c., taken for consumption in the United Kingdom, scarcely amounts to 2,800 bales per annum.  The sale and consumption is nearly stationary, and cinnamon is only in demand for those finer purposes for which cassia, its competitor, cannot be used.  Whilst we imported the large amount of 700,095 lbs. in 1850, only 28,347 lbs. went into consumption.  The consumption has declined in the last two years to about 21,500 lbs.  Cinnamon is now imported into the United Kingdom duty free.

The land under cultivation with cinnamon in Ceylon is about 13,000 acres, principally in the western and southern provinces.  The number of gardens being eleven at Kaderane, seven at Ekelli, seven at Morotto, six at Marandham, and two at Willisene.  Several enterprising planters have recently commenced the cultivation of this spice at Singapore and Malacca.  The plants already promise well.  Indeed there can be little doubt of its thriving, as the tree has been long grown in gardens and pleasure grounds in those settlements, as an ornamental plant, and has always flourished.

The Ceylon article is being supplanted in the continental markets by a cheaper one, of China and Malabar growth.  The Javanese, tempted by the fatally high prices caused by the excessive duties on our Colonial spice, smuggled a quantity of seed, and with it a cinnamon cultivator, out of the island, and have since paid considerable attention to its growth.  The Dutch have at present more than five millions of plants, equal to upwards of 5,000 acres, the greater part of which are in tolerably full bearing.

The cinnamon trees in Java begin to blossom in the month of March.  They do not all flower at the same time, but in succession.  The fruit begins to ripen in October in the same manner, so that the crop lasts from October to February.  In Ceylon the blossom begins to appear in November.  The seeds when plucked ought to be fully ripe, and after being separated from the outer pulpy covering, should be dried in the shade.  They can be kept for two or three months in dry sand or ashes, but must not be exposed to the sun, as they would split, and thus be rendered useless.