Page:Indian Medicinal Plants (Text Part 2).djvu/350

N. B— Col. Beddome, Dr.Dymock and others believe this to be a variety of C. Zeylanicum.

Uses : — Dr. Kurz says the aroma of the bark is variable, and the bark of the root of the Martaban plant is as aromatic as the best Ceylon cinnamon. Dr. Gimlette says in Nepal, the bark is used in dyspepsia and liver diseases.

Vern.:— Jangli-darchini (Hind.) ; Kattu-karuraf pattai (Tam.); Adavi-lavanga-patta (Tel.); Sikivabo, looleng-kyaw (Burm.).

Habitat : — Tenassarim, Mergui, etc.

A large tree. Bark grey, smooth, with horizontal, wavy bands, ¼-½in. thick. Wood light, yellowish-brown, moderately hard, shining, smooth, scented (Gamble). Branchlets nearly glabrous. Leaves opposite, as a rule, glabrous, very variable in breadth, 3-8in. lanceolate, oblong or linear-oblong, rarely ovate and rounded at base, shining above, 3-nerved, nerves continued up to the tip ; sometimes acute at base. Panicles slender, long peduncled, often exceeding the leaves, silky, pubescent. Flowers about 1/10in. long. Fruiting perianth rather spreading when dry, ⅓in. diam.; lobes persistent. Fruit ⅓in. long, base sunk in the perianth.

Uses: — Dr. Kurz remarks that he does not know in what this species should differ from the true Cinnamon. The inner bark possesses in the fresh state a powerful cinnamonic odour and taste, and by careful drying and preparation appears capable of affording Cassia ligna of good quality. The seeds, bruised and mixed with honey or sugar, are given to children in dysentery and coughs, and combined with other ingredients in fevers.

Sir George Watt writes : — " It would seem probable that much of the economic information given in works on Economic Botany, under this species, should be transferred to the C. Zeylanium of Western and Southern India."

Syn. :— Laurus cinnamomum, Roxb. 336.