The cinnamon gardens are confined to a strip of country in the neighbourhood of Colombo. When the trade was at its best, five of the principal gardens measured from 15 to 20 miles in circumference, but now the area of cultivation is very much restricted, and plants which were at one time tended with the greatest care, and guarded with inhuman jealousy, are choked with the natural profusion of jungle vegetation. The bark is taken from shoots of eighteen months or two years growth, in which time they attain a length of from 6 to 10 feet, and a thickness of from ½ to 2 inches. The plants are managed on the coppice system, and only four or five shoots are allowed to grow up from each stool. The shoots are cut down twice a year after the rains, and the bark is detached in lengths of about a foot. After lying in bundles as taken from the shoots for about a day, each separate piece is carefully scraped to remove the outer and middle layers of the bark, and the remaining portion is thereby often reduced to the thickness of one-hundredth part of an inch. The pieces are then made up into composite quills by placing the smaller pieces inside the larger, and thus the cinnamon is often formed into straight firm rods of from 3 to 4 feet in length. After drying in the sun the bark is ready to make up into bundles for exportation.

Cinnamon of an inferior quality is grown in Southern India at Tellicherry and Tinnevelly; and in Java the cultivation was introduced by the Dutch about the year 1825. The plant has also been grown in the colony of French Guiana, and in other localities. The produce of none of these places, however, approaches in quality to the cinnamon of Ceylon, whence also the largest proportion of the entire consumption is supplied. Nearly the whole quantity prepared in Ceylon is brought to the British market. The value of Ceylon cinnamon submitted to the English Board of Trade, was in 1874 more than 2s. 2d. per lb, that from other localities being estimated at about 10d.

Ceylon cinnamon of fine quality is a very thin smooth bark, with a light-yellowish brown colour, a highly fragrant odour, and a peculiarly sweet, warm, and pleasing aromatic taste. Its peculiar flavour is due to an aromatic oil which it contains to the extent of from 0 ’ 5 to 1 per cent. The essential oil of cinnamon, as an article of commerce, is prepared chiefly in Ceylon, where the coarser pieces of bark are used for its extraction. These are roughly powdered and macerated in sea water for two days, when the whole is quickly distilled. The oil is of a golden-yellow colour, with the peculiar odour of cinnamon and a very hot aromatic taste. It consists essentially of cinnamic aldehyde or the hydride of cinnamyl, and by the absorption of oxygen as it becomes old it darkens in colour and develops resinous compounds with cinnamic acid.

Cinnamon is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavouring material, being largely used in the preparation of some kinds of chocolate and liqueurs. In medicine it acts as an aromatic stimulant and cordial; but it is chiefly prescribed for improving the flavour of bitter substances and to correct the griping action of purgatives. Being a much more costly spice than cassia, that comparatively harsh-flavoured substance is frequently substituted for or added to cinnamon. The two barks when whole are easily enough distinguished, and their microscopical characters are also quite distinct. When powdered bark is treated with tincture of iodine, little effect is visible in the case of pure cinnamon; but with cassia a deep-blue tint is produced, the intensity of the coloration depending on the proportion of the cassia.