The difference of duty would be more than made up by the diffusion of capital in planting, the employment of vast numbers of laborers, the purchase from Government of many thousand acres of now valueless flats, and all the attendant benefits arising out of the development of a new field of operation for the colonial industrial resources.[50] The cassia tree grows naturally to the height of 50 or 60 feet, with large, spreading, horizontal branches.  The peelers take off the two barks together, and separating the rough outer one, which is of no value, they lay the inner bark to dry, which rolls up and becomes the Cassia lignea of commerce.  It resembles cinnamon in taste, smell and appearance.  The best is imported from China, either direct from Canton, or through Singapore, in small tubes or quills, sometimes the thickness of the ordinary pipes of cinnamon and of the same length; but usually they are shorter and thicker, and the bark itself coarser.  It is of a tolerably smooth surface and brownish color, with some cast of red, but much less so than cinnamon.  The exports from China are said to be about five million pounds annually; price about 32s. per cwt.  In 1850, 6,509 piculs of cassia lignea (nearly one million pounds), valued at 87,850 dollars, were shipped from the single port of Canton.  Cassia bark is of a less fibrous texture, and more brittle, and it is also distinguished from cinnamon by a want of pungency, and by being of a mucilaginous or gelatinous quality.

CASSIA BUDS are the dried flower buds (perianth and ovary) of the cassia tree, and are mostly brought from China.  They bear some resemblance to a clove, but are smaller, and when fresh have a rich cinnamon flavor.  They should be chosen round, fresh, and free from stalk and dirt.  They are used chiefly in confectionery, and have the flavor and pungency of cassia.  The exports from Canton in 1844 were 21,500 lbs.; in 1850, 44,140 lbs., valued at 7,400 dollars.  The average quantity of cassia buds imported into the United Kingdom, in each of the thirteen years ending with 1842, was 40,231 lbs.; the average quantity entered for home consumption in these years was 6,610 lbs., and the average annual amount of duty received was L312.

Cassia bark yields a yellow volatile oil, called oil of cassia, the finer kind of which differs but little in its properties from that of cinnamon, for which it is generally substituted; it has a specific gravity of 1071.  The best is manufactured in China, where the wood, bark, leaves and oil are all in request.  The cassia oil is rated at 150 dollars per picul, and the trade in this article reaches about 250,000 dollars.

CANELLA ALBA, or wild cinnamon, is a valuable and ornamental tree, growing about fifteen feet high, which is cultivated in South America and the West Indies for its pungent bark, which is shipped to this country in bales or cases, in long quills and flat pieces, something like cinnamon.  Large old cuttings root readily in the sand.  It is grown chiefly in the Bahama Islands, from whence we derive our supplies.