The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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_Nostoe eduli_ is used in China as food; _Gelidium corneum_ enters
into the formation of the edible swallows' nests of the Japanese
islands. Agar-agar moss is shipped from Singapore to the extent of
13,000 tons a-year. Irish moss, Iceland moss, Ceylon moss, and some
others, are also of some importance. Iodine and kelp are prepared to a
considerable extent from sea weeds; one species (_Fucus tenax_)
furnishes large supplies of glue to the Canton market, and the
orchilla weed is of great importance to the dyer. It is principally as
food that I have to speak of them in this section.

In some of the islands off the Scotch coasts, sea-wrack (_Fucus
vesiculosus_) forms the chief support of horses and cattle in the
winter months. _F. serratus_ is similarly employed in Norway.

The _Laminaria saccharina_ is interesting from the fact of its
containing sugar. It is highly esteemed in Japan, where it is
extensively used as an article of diet, being first washed in cold
water and then boiled in milk or broth.

CARRAGEEN, or IRISH ROCK MOSS, _Sphaeroccus_ (_Chondus_) _crispus_,
abounds on the Western Coast of Ireland, round the Orkneys, Hebrides,
Scilly Islands, &c. It is purplish white, and nearly transparent, and
is largely imported to feed cattle and pigs in Yorkshire. It is also
used for dressing the warp of webs in the loom, and mixing with the
pulp for sizing paper in the vat. It swells up like tragacanth in
water; and, by long decoction, affords a considerable quantity of a
light, nutritious, but nauseous jelly. It is sometimes sold as pearl
moss, and is employed in the place of gelatine or isinglass for
preparing blanc-manges, jellies, &c. It fetches about L7 the ton.

AGAR-AGAR, a sort of edible seaweed, or tripe de roche, is found
growing on the rocks about the eastern islands that are covered by the
tide. It is much used for making a kind of jelly, which is highly
esteemed both by Europeans and natives for the delicacy of its flavor.
The first quality is worth about 30s. the picul (133 lbs.). An
inferior kind is collected on the submerged banks in the neighbourhood
of Macassar (Celebes), by the Bajow Laut, or Sea Gipsies. It is also
collected on the rocks about the settlement of Singapore, for export
to China, where it is much used as a size for stiffening silks and for
making jellies. It constitutes the bulk of the cargoes of the Chinese
junks on their return voyage. The quantity shipped from Singapore is
about 10,000 piculs (12,500 tons) annually.

ICELAND MOSS (_Cetraria islandica_) combines valuable alimentary and
medicinal properties. It is imported in bags and barrels from Hamburg
and Gothenburg, and is said to be the produce of Norway and Iceland.
The quantity consumed varies; in 1836, 20,599 lbs. paid duty; in 1840,
6,462 lbs. In Carniola, swine, oxen, and horses, are fattened on it.
Boiled in water or milk, and flavored to the palate with sugar, wine,
and aromatics, it forms a very agreeable diet for invalids.

CEYLON MOSS (_Gracelaria_, or _Gigartina, lichenoides_), a small and
delicate fucus, is well known for the amylaceous property it
possesses, and the large proportion of true starch it furnishes. The
fronds are filiform; the filaments much branched, and of a light
purple color. It grows abundantly in the large lake or back-water
which extends between Putlam and Calpentyr, Ceylon. It is collected by
the natives principally during the south-west monsoon, when it becomes
separated by the agitation of the water. The moss is spread on mats
and dried in the sun for two or three days. It is then washed several
times in fresh water, and again exposed to the sun, which bleaches it,
after which it is collected in heaps for exportation.

Professor O'Shaughnessy has given the best analysis of this moss,
which he described under the name of _Fucus amylaceus_; 100 grains
weight yielded the following proportions:--

Vegetable jelly 54.50
True starch 15.00
Ligneous fibre 18.00
Sulphate and muriate of soda 6.50
Gum 4.00
Sulphate and phosphate of lime 1.00
-----
Total 99.00
With a trace of wax and iron.

I observe among the imports into New Orleans, 911 bushels of Spanish
moss in 1849, and 1,394 bushels in 1848. I do not know precisely its
use, or from whence derived, but I believe it is chiefly used for
stuffing cushions, mattresses, &c.

FERN.--The rhizome of _Pteris esculenta_ is used as food in Australia,
and that of _Marattia alata_ in the Sandwich Islands. The trunks of
the _Alsophila_, or tree fern, of the western side of Van Diemen's
Land, and of the common tree fern, _Cibotium Billardieri_ (the
_Dicksonia antarctica_, of Labillardiere), contain the edible pith or
bread-fruit eaten by the natives. Many other species of ferns are
esculent. Typha bread is prepared in Scinde from the pollen of the
flowers of the _Typha elephantina_, and in New Zealand from another
species of bulrush (_Typha utilis_).

"It must not be supposed, as some have believed, that the fern root,
wherever it grows, is fit for food. On the contrary, it is only that
found in rich loose soils which contains fecula in sufficient quantity
for this purpose: in poorer ground the root contains proportionally
more fibre. We were now encamped on an alluvial flat in the valley of
the river, thirty or forty feet below the general level of the plain;
and I observed that, even in this favourable spot, a great deal of
discrimination was used in selecting the best roots, which was
discoverable by their being crisp enough to break easily when bent:
those which would not stand this test being thrown aside. Here a
quantity sufficient for several days was procured, and was packed in
baskets, to last till another spot equally favourable could be
reached.

"The process of cooking fern root is very simple; for it is merely
roasted on the fire, and afterwards bruised by means of a flat stone
similar to a cobbler's lap-stone, and a wooden pestle. The long fibres
which run like wires through the root are then easily drawn out; and
the remainder is pounded till it acquires the consistence of tough
dough, in which state it is eaten, its taste being very like that of
cassava bread. Sometimes it is sweetened with the juice of the 'tutu.'

"The natives consider that there is no better food than this for a
traveller, as it both appeases the cravings of hunger for a longer
period than their other ordinary food, and renders the body less
sensible to the fatigue of a long march. It is in this respect to the
human frame, what oats or beans are to the horse. They have a song in
praise of this root, which I have once or twice heard chanted on
occasions of festivals, by a troop of young women who carry baskets of
the food intended for the guests."--("Shortland's New Zealand.")

I ought not to omit noticing the _Tuber cibarium_, a plant of the
mushroom family, growing under ground, which furnishes the famous
truffle, so celebrated in the annals of cooking, of which immense
quantities are imported, chiefly from the South of France. It is
common also in Italy and Germany, and is often found in
Northamptonshire, and some other of our own counties. The "kemmayes,"
a desert plant of the truffle kind, is a great favorite with the
Arabs.

In Terra del Fuego the only vegetable food of the natives, besides a
few berries of a dwarf arbutus, is a species of globular bright yellow
fungus (_Cyttaria Darwinii_), which grows in vast numbers on the beech
trees. In its tough and mature state it is collected in large
quantities by the women and children, and eaten uncooked. It has a
slightly sweet mucilaginous taste, with a faint smell like that of a
mushroom.

SECTION III.

SPICES, AROMATIC CONDIMENTS, FRAGRANT WOODS, &c.

The various spices and condiments which form so large an item in our
commercial imports, are obtained from the barks, the dried seeds, the
fruit, flower-buds, and root-stocks, of different plants. The chief
aromatic barks comprise the cinnamon, cassia lignea, cascarilla, and
canella alba. The medicinal barks will be noticed elsewhere. The seeds
and fruits include pepper, pimento, cardamoms, anise, nutmegs,
chillies. The flower-buds of some furnish cloves and cassia buds; the
roots supply ginger, galangale, turmeric, and ginseng. A few other
useful substances, such as vanilla, the costus, or putchuk, mace, soy,
and some of the odoriferous woods I have included under this section.

CINNAMON.

The true cinnamon of commerce is obtained from the inner bark of
_Cinnamonum verum_, R. Brown; or _C. zeylanicum_; the _Laurus
cinnamonum_, of Linnaeus, a handsome looking tree, native of the East
Indies. The island of Ceylon is the chief seat of its cultivation, and
for a long time the Dutch depended solely for their supply of this
bark for the home market on the produce of the wild cinnamon trees in
the King of Kandy's territories there. At last, from the increasing
demand, they resorted to the growth and more careful culture of the
tree themselves. About the year 1794, the cultivation had succeeded so
well that they were enabled to meet the demand for the spice from
trees of their own growth, independent of any supplies from the
Kandian monarch's territory.

In 1796, when this island fell into our hands, the local government
endeavoured, after the former fashion of the Dutch, to restrain the
production of this article of commerce within due bounds, by
destroying all above a certain quantity.

General Maitland, in 1805, and his successors in the government,
seeing the folly of such a ridiculous policy, very wisely fostered and
promoted the extended cultivation of cinnamon plantations.

In the island of Java, and in Cochin-China, cinnamon culture has
within the last few years made considerable progress.

The leaves of the cinnamon tree are more or less acuminated, from five
to eight inches long, by about three broad, growing in pairs opposite
each other. They have three principal ribs, which come in contact at
its base, but do not unite. The leaves, when first developed, are of a
bright red hue, then of a pale yellow, and lastly of a dark shining
green; when mature, they emit a strong aromatic odor if broken or
rubbed in the hands, and have the pungent taste of cloves. The young
twigs of the true cinnamon tree are not downy, like those of the
cassia bark. The plant blooms in January and February, and the seeds
ripen in July and August.

The blossoms grow on slender foot-stalks, of a pale yellow color, from
the axillae of the leaves and the extremity of the branches. They are
numerous clusters of small white flowers, having a brownish shade in
the centre, about the same size as the lilac, which it resembles. The
fruit is a drupe, about the size of a small hedge strawberry,
containing one seed, and of the shape of an acorn, which when ripe is
soft and of a dark purple color.

The roots are fibrous, hard, and tough, covered with an odoriferous
bark; on the outside of a greyish brown, and on the inside of a
reddish hue. They strike about three feet into the earth, and spread
to a considerable distance. Many of them smell strongly of camphor,
which is sometimes extracted from them.

The trees in their wild state will grow ordinarily to the height of 30
feet. The trunk is about three feet in circumference, and throws out a
great number of large spreading horizontal branches, clothed with
thick foliage. When cultivated for their bark, the trees are not
permitted to rise above the height of ten feet.

The true cinnamon tree (according to Mr. Crawfurd) is not a native of
the islands of the Eastern Archipelago; but Marshall, in his
description and history of the tree ("Annals of Philos," vol. x.)
assigns very extensive limits to its cultivation. He asserts that it
is found on the Malabar coast, in Cochin-China, and Tonquin, Sumatra,
the Soolo Archipelago, Borneo, Timor, the Nicobar and Philippine
Islands. It has been transplanted, and grows well in the Mauritius,
Bourbon and the eastern coast of Africa; in the Brazils, Guiana, in
South America, and Guadaloupe, Martinique, Tobago, and Jamaica; but
produces in the West a bark of very inferior quality to the Oriental.

Rumphius has remarked, that the trees which yield cinnamon, cassia,
and clove bark (_Cinnamonum Culilaban_), though so much alike, are
hardly ever found in the same countries.

The term clove bark has been applied to the barks of two different
trees belonging to the natural order _Laurineae_. One of these barks is
frequently called "Culilaban bark." It consists of almost flat
pieces, and is obtained from _Cinnamonum Culilaban_, a tree growing in
Amboyna, and probably other parts of the Moluccas.

The other bark, known as clove bark, occurs in quills, which are
imported from South America. Murray says it is produced by the _Myrtus
carophyllata_, a tree termed by Decandolle _Syzgium carophyllaeum_. It
appears, however, that this is an error, for both Nees and Von Martius
declare it to be the produce of _Dicypellium caryophyllatum_; and the
last quoted authority states that this tree is the noblest of all the
laurels found in the Brazils, where it is called "Pao Cravo." It grows
at Para and Rio Negro.

Cinnamon may be propagated by seeds, plants, or layers; roots also, if
carefully transplanted, will thrive in favorable localities, and yield
useful shoots in twelve months. It is usually cultivated from suckers,
which should not have more than three or four leaves, and require
continual watering. If raised from seed, the young plants are kept in
a nursery for a year or two, and then transplanted; but the trees from
seeds are longer arriving at maturity. The plants are kept well
earthed about the roots to retain the moisture, and coco-nut husks are
placed above them, which in time form an excellent compost.

A cinnamon plantation, even in a favorable locality, seldom yields
much return until eight or nine years have elapsed.

The mode of cultivation pursued by the natives differs from that
followed in the plantations of the Europeans. The native system is to
allow the cinnamon to grow large before cutting; the European practice
is to cut it young. The result is that the native produces quantity,
but coarse; the European produces quality, but less in quantity. I
have found, in conversation with the native growers, that they
consider the bush or tree decidedly weakened by its being kept down by
constant cutting twice a year; and that their plants are stronger and
better. It is not absolutely an original opinion, but I think the two
systems might be judiciously blended. In cutting the cinnamon sticks
for peeling, as the Europeans do it twice a year, there is always risk
of losing much valuable young wood, which is destroyed in slashing
into the bushes with _catties_ (bill-hooks) to take out that which is
in a fit state for peeling, all of which is so much loss from the next
cutting; and on this ground I should be inclined to advocate cutting
once a year. There are, I know, other considerations than the mere
growth of the sticks to be taken into account. Of these may be named
the time when the bark peels best from the stick, which of course must
depend upon age as well as season, the excited or unexcited state of
the shoots, and their several effects upon the quality of the spice.

Weeding the plantations does not seem to be of so much consequence, if
the shrub gets plenty of free air all round it.

Cinnamon land continues to yield abundantly crop after crop, not for
years, but for scores of years. The greater portion of the late
preserved plantations in Ceylon were planted by the Dutch, one hundred
years ago, and the bushes are stated to be as vigorous as ever, and
quite likely to go on yielding crops till the year 2000. This
productiveness can only be accounted for on Liebig's principle of
returning to the soil a portion of what we take from it. In the
operation of peeling cinnamon, the tops and lateral branches are cut
off, and left by the peelers on the ground close to the bushes. These,
no doubt, furnish a considerable quantity of manure to the plants.

The general appearance of the plantation is that of a copse, with
laurel leaves and stems, about the thickness of hazel; occasionally a
tree may be seen which, having been allowed to grow for seed, has
reached a height of forty or fifty feet, with a trunk eighteen inches
in diameter. When in full bloom, the cinnamon bushes have a very
beautiful appearance, the small white petals affording a most
agreeable contrast with the flame-colored extremities of the upper,
and the dark green of the inferior foliage, with the blossoms of
various lovely parasitical plants.

The cinnamon tree flourishes only in a small portion of the island of
Ceylon. It is chiefly confined to the south-west angle, formed by the
sea coast, from Tangalle in the south to Chilaw on the west. It is in
a climate of agreeable temperature, which is at once hot and moist;
hot from its tropical position, and moist from the frequency and
plentifulness of rains. The general level of the country is low, in
the midst of fresh-water lakes, divided from the sea by a narrow
riband of land. And the water in the soil of the cinnamon gardens is
of extraordinary purity, so as to be for that reason much in request
in the neighbouring city as a beverage. This exact combination of
influences does not occur anywhere else in the island, at least not in
the same degree.

The cultivation principally centres round Colombo, the capital and
principal port.

On the hills and valleys, in the neighbourhood of Kandy, which have a
temperate climate, the tree flourishes well; a rather elevated
situation, with shelter, contributing to the luxuriance of the plants.
The best soil for it appears to be a pure quartz sand, which in some
places rests on black moss or mould. From the surface to the depth of
a few inches, this sand is as fine in its nature and as pearly white
in its appearance as the best table salt; but below that depth, and
near the roots of the bushes, the sand is greyish.

A specimen of this soil being carefully dried by Dr. Davy, was found
to consist of 98.5 silicious sand, 0.5 vegetable matter, and 1.1
water--in 100 parts. This circumstance impresses one very strongly on
visiting the cinnamon gardens; it seems so strange to see a plain of
pure quartz sand whitened in the sun, and yet covered over with a
luxuriant growth of trees. In richer soils the aroma does not seem to
develop itself in the same concentrated form.

A mixture of loam and peat, with sand, is said, however, to form a
good soil in some localities. These plantations may well suggest a
doubt as to the truth of the proposition so unqualifiedly laid down by
some authors, that "earth destitute of organic matter cannot sustain
vegetation." Certainly it is not organic matter which supports the
cinnamon trees of Colombo.

_Peeling_.--The best cinnamon is obtained from the stalks or twigs,
which shoot up in a cluster of eight or ten together from the roots,
after the parent bush or tree has been cut down. These shoots are cut
once in about three years, close to the ground. Great care is
requisite, both as to the exact size and age; for if the bark is too
young, it has a green taste, if too old it is rough and gritty. These
shoots yield an incomparably fine cinnamon bark. When cut for peeling
they are of various sizes and lengths, depending on the texture of the
bark. These rods afford the hazel-like walking-sticks so much esteemed
by strangers, and which, though difficult to be procured during the
prevalence of the oppressive 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.

9. _Toupat kuroondu_, trefoil cinnamon, of which there are three
varieties, which grow in the mountains and valleys of the interior
about Kandy.

10. _We kuroondu_, white ant's cinnamon.

The first-named four of these are, however, alone varieties of the
_Cinnamonum verum_.

Good cinnamon is known by the following properties:--It is thin and
rather pliable; it ought to be about the substance of royal paper, or
somewhat thicker. It admits of a considerable degree of pressure, and
bends before it breaks; the fracture is then splintering. It is of a
light color, approaching to yellow, bordering but little upon the
brown; it possesses a sweetish taste, at the same time it is not
stronger than can be borne without pain, and is not succeeded by any
after-taste. The more cinnamon departs from these characteristics, the
coarser and less serviceable it is esteemed; and it should be rejected
if it be hard, and thick as a half-crown piece; if it be very dark
colored or brown; if it be very pungent and hot on the tongue, with a
taste bordering upon that of cloves, so that it cannot be suffered
without pain. Particular care should be taken that it is not
false-packed, or mixed with cinnamon of a common sort.

The following remarks, by Mr. Dunewille, of Malacca, as to the
suitability of the Straits' Settlements for cinnamon culture, are
interesting, although in some instances a repetition of previous
observations:--

It appears, from experience, that the soil of Ceylon is more
favorable to the growth of cinnamon than to that of any other
aromatic plant, and I find the climate of Ceylon, if at all, differs
but in a very slight degree from that of the Straits. I therefore
conclude that the spice, if cultivated in the Straits, will prove
superior to that of Ceylon, if one may judge from the various spices
that grow here almost wild, and it would moreover yield a better
return than in Ceylon. My supposition is confirmed from having seen
the spice which was prepared last year in Pringet by the Honorable
Resident Councillor of Malacca, and which I found to be equally as
good in every respect as that grown and cultivated in the maritime
provinces in Ceylon.

A sandy soil is that which is generally selected for cinnamon, but
other soils may be chosen also, such as a mixture of sandy with red
soil, free from quartz, gravel, or rock, also red and dark brown
soils. Such land in a flat country is preferable to hilly spots,
upon which, however, cinnamon also grows, and are known by the name
of the "Kandyan Mountains." The soil that is rocky and stony under
the surface is bad, and not adapted for the cultivation of cinnamon,
as the trees would neither grow fast, nor yield a remunerative
return.