Mr. THWAITES, of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kandy, is of opinion from his own observation, that cinnamon is indigenous to Ceylon, as it is found, but of inferior quality, in the central mountain range, as high as 3000 feet above the level of the sea—­and again in the sandy soil near Batticaloa on the east coast, he saw it in such quantity as to suggest the idea that it must be the remains of former cultivation.  This statement of Mr. Thwaites is quite in consistency with the narrative of VALENTYN (ch. vii.), that the Dutch, on their first arrival in Ceylon, A.D. 1601-2, took on board cinnamon at Batticaloa,—­and that the surrounding district continued to produce it in great abundance in A.D. 1726. (Ib. ch. xv. p. 223, 224.) Still it must be observed that its appearance in these situations is not altogether inconsistent with the popular belief that the seeds may have been carried there by birds.

Finding that the Singhalese works accessible to me, the Mahawanso, the Rajavali, the Rajaratnacari, &c., although frequently particularising the aromatic shrubs and flowers planted by the pious care of the native sovereigns, made no mention of cinnamon, I am indebted to the good offices of the Maha-Moodliar de Sarem, of Mr. De Alwis, the translator of the Sidath-Sangara, and of Mr. Spence Hardy, the learned historian of Buddhism, for a thorough, examination of such native books as were likely to throw light on the question.  Mr. Hardy writes to me that he has not met with the word cinnamon (kurundu) in any early Singhalese books; but there is mention of a substance called “paspalawata” of which cinnamon forms one of the ingredients.  Mr. de Alwis has been equally unsuccessful, although in the Saraswate Nigardu, an ancient Sanskrit Catalogue of Plants, the true cinnamon is spoken of as Sinhalam, a word which signifies “belonging to Ceylon” to distinguish it from cassia, which is found in Hindustan.  The Maha-Moodliar, as the result of an investigation made by him in communication with some of the most erudite of the Buddhist priesthood familiar with Pali and Singhalese literature, informs me that whilst cinnamon is alluded to in several Sanskrit works on Medicine, such as that of Susrata, and thence copied into Pali translations, its name has been found only in Singhalese works of comparatively modern date, although it occurs in the treatise on Medicine and Surgery popularly attributed to King Bujas Raja, A.D. 339.  Lankagodde, a learned priest of Galle, says that the word lawanga in an ancient Pali vocabulary means cinnamon, but I rather think this is a mistake, for lawanga or lavanga is the Pali name for “cloves,” that for cinnamon being lamago.

The question therefore remains in considerable obscurity.  It is difficult to understand how an article so precious could exist in the highest perfection in Ceylon, at the period when the island was the very focus and centre of Eastern commerce, and yet not become an object of interest and an item of export.  And although it is sparingly used in the Singhalese cuisine, still looking at its many religious uses for decoration and incense, the silence of the ecclesiastical writers as to its existence is not easily accounted for.