Cassia or kulit manis (Laurus cassia) is a coarse species of cinnamon which flourishes chiefly, as well as the two foregoing articles, in the northern part of the island; but with this difference, that the camphor and benzoin grow only near the coast, whereas the cassia is a native of the central parts of the country.  It is mostly procured in those districts which lie inland of Tapanuli, but it is also found in Musi, where Palembang River takes its rise.  The leaves are about four inches long, narrower than the bay (to which tribe it belongs) and more pointed; deep green; smooth surface, and plain edge.  The principal fibres take their rise from the peduncle.  The young leaves are mostly of reddish hue.  The blossoms grow six in number upon slender foot-stalks, close to the bottom of the leaf.  They are monopetalous, small, white, stellated in six points.  The stamina are six, with one stile, growing from the germen, which stands up in three brownish segments, resembling a cup.  The trees grow from fifty to sixty feet high, with large, spreading, horizontal branches, almost as low as the earth.  The root is said to contain much camphor that may be obtained by boiling or other processes unknown on Sumatra.  No pains is bestowed on the cultivation of the cassia.  The bark, which is the part in use, is commonly taken from such of the trees as are a foot or eighteen inches diameter, for when they are younger it is said to be so thin as to lose all its qualities very soon.  The difference of soil and situation alters considerably the value of the bark.  Those trees which grow in a high rocky soil have red shoots, and the bark is superior to that which is produced in a moist clay, where the shoots are green.  I have been assured by a person of extensive knowledge that the cassia produced on Sumatra is from the same tree which yields the true cinnamon, and that the apparent difference arises from the less judicious manner of quilling it.  Perhaps the younger and more tender branches should be preferred; perhaps the age of the tree or the season of the year ought to be more nicely attended to; and lastly I have known it to be suggested that the mucilaginous slime which adheres to the inside of the fresh peeled rind does, when not carefully wiped off, injure the flavour of the cassia and render it inferior to that of the cinnamon.  I am informed that it has been purchased by Dutch merchants at our India sales, where it sometimes sold to much loss, and afterwards by them shipped for Spain as cinnamon, being packed in boxes which had come from Ceylon with that article.  The price it bears in the island is about ten or twelve dollars the pecul.

RATTANS.

Rattans or rotan (Calamus rotang) furnish annually many large cargoes, chiefly from the eastern side of the island, where the Dutch buy them to send to Europe; and the country traders for the western parts of India.  Walking-canes, or tongkat, of various kinds, are also produced near the rivers which open to the straits of Malacca.