the outside, provided the hoop to which it is fixed below be made of copper; but this hoop must never be japanned nor painted; and it must always be made of sheet-copper or silver; and the boiler must always be heated over a small portable fire-place or lamp, somewhat less in diameter above, than the hoop on which the boiler is placed.

"In order that the flat bottom of the boiler may not smother and put out the fire, the brim of the small furnace or chafing-dish, which is used, must have six projecting knobs at the upper part of it, each about one quarter of an inch in height, on which the bottom of the boiler may rest.

"If these knobs (which may be the large heads of six nails) be placed at equal distances from each other, the boiler will be well supported; and as the hot vapour from the fire will pass off freely between them, the fire will burn well. As a very small fire is all that can be wanted, no inconvenience whatever will arise from the beating of the boiler on the table, in a dining-room or breakfast-room, especially if a spirit lamp be used; and the quantity of heat wanted is so very small, when the water is put boiling hot into the boiler, that the expense for spirits of wine would not, in London, amount to one penny a day, when coffee is made twice a day for four

persons.

"It is a curious fact, but it is nevertheless most certain, that in some cases, spirits of wine is cheaper, when employed as fuel, even than wood. With a spirit lamp constructed on Argand's principle, but with a chimney made of thin sheet iron, which I caused to be made about seven years ago, (and which has since become very common in Paris*,) I heated a sufficient quantity of cold water, to make coffee for the breakfast of two persons, and kept the coffee boiling hot, one hour after it was made, with as much spirits of wine as cost two sous, or one penny English money."

[Count Rumford.

SECTION XVI.

Cocoa.

Cocos. LINN,

THE Cocoa-tree is a native of very warm climates. The genus includes five species, which are found in the tropics, India, and South America. Of these, two are highly valuable, the cocos nucifera, or cocoa-nut tree; and the cocos butyracea, or palm oil tree. We shall glance at each of them.

1. Cocoa.nut Tree.

Cocos nucifera.-LINN.

This tree rises to the height of sixty feet, and is slenderer in the middle than towards the top or bottom. The leaves or branches are often fourteen or fifteen feet long, and twenty-eight in number, winged, of a yellow colour, straight and tapering. The pinna are green, often three feet long next the trunk, but diminishing in length towards the extremity of the branches, which are fastened at top by brown filamentous threads that grow out of them, of the size of ordinary pack-thread, and are interwoven like a web. The nuts hang at the summit of the trunk in clusters of a dozen each. The incrusted white-meat of the nut is formed of the interior fluid, which is continuaily concreting as it ascends from the root. The interior fluid, or milk, as it is called, is often upwards of a pint. The leaves are wrought into brooms, mats, sacks, hammocks, and other utensils. In its original production this tree was probably an Asiatic plant; but it is now found in almost all the warm parts of America. It may be propagated in our own country from the ripe nut, which should be kept in large pots of sand during the voyage; and if it should shoot in the course of the passage it will be so much time gained. But the nuts brought to England for sale will seldom answer for the purpose of propagation, as they are almost always plucked before they are ripe, that they may the more safely endure the voyage.

The inhabitants also draw from the tree itself a very agreeable liquor, which the Indians call sura, and the Europeans style palm wine; and indeed it is little inferior to Spanish white wine, except

in keeping. There are three sorts of palm wine; the first of which is drank within a few hours after it is drawn from the tree, and almost in its original state, when it has a moderate sweetness; the second and third sorts are obtained by fermentation, and the addition of various herbs and roots. The first of these liquors will not intoxicate, but the two latter will. Beside all these advantages which are obtained from the cocoa-tree, the filaments which form the outer coat of the nut are worked into threads, of which very good cordage and cables are made.

2. Palm-oil Tree.

Cocos butyracea.-LINN.

This is also a native of South America. The oil from which it derives its specific name is produced by bruising and dissolving the kernels of the fruit in water, without the aid of heat, by which the oil is separated, and rises to the surface, and on being washed two or three times, is rendered fit for use. When brought into this country it is of the consistence of an ointment, and of an orange. yellow colour, with little taste, and of a strong, though not disagreeable, smell. Its use is confined to external applications in pains, tumours, and sprains; but it appears to possess very little, if any, advantage over other bland oils.

[Linn. Turton. Pantologia.

SECTION XVII.

Cinnamon Tree.

Laurus Cinnamomum.-LINN.

This valuable and useful bay-tree (for the generic term shews the reader sufficiently that it belongs to the bay kind), rises above twenty feet in height; the trunk extends about six feet in length, and one foot and a half in diameter; it sends off numerous branches, which are covered with smooth bark, of a brownish ash colour; the leaves stand in opposite pairs upon short footstalks; they are of an ovalish oblong shape, obtusely pointed, entire, firm, from three to five inches long, of a bright green colour, and marked with three whitish longitudinal nerves; the common peduncles grow from the

younger branches, and after dividing, produce the flowers in a kind of paniculated umbel. The petals are six, oval, pointed, concave, spreading, of a greenish white or yellowish colour, and the three outermost are broader than the others, the filaments are nine, shorter than the corolla, flattish, erect, standing in ternaries, and, at the base of the three innermost, two small round glands are placed ; the antheræ are double, and unite over the top of the filament ; the germen is oblong, the style simple, of the length of the stamina, and the stigma is depressed and triangular: the fruit is a pulpy pericarpium, resembling a small olive, of a deep blue colour in. serted in the corolla, and containing an oblong nut.

The true cinnamon-tree is a native of Ceylon, where, according to Ray, it grows as common in the woods and hedges as the hazel with us, and is used by the Ceylonese for fuel and other domestic purposes. Its cultivation was first attempted in this country about the year 1768 by Mr. Philip Miller, who observes, "that the cin. namon and camphire trees are very near akin," and that if the berries of these trees were procured from the places of their growth, and planted in tubs of earth, the plants might be more easily reared than by layers, which require two years or more before they take We wish, however, to caution those who make the trial, to plant this fruit immediately upon being obtained from the tree; for Jacquin remarks, "Cæterum ad sationem transportari semina ne. queunt, quum paucos intra dies nuclei corrumpantur, atque effœti evadant*. Ray seems to think that the cassia cinnamomea of Herman, the cassia lignea, and the cassia fistula of the ancient Greek writers, were the same, or varieties of the same species of plant t. But an inquiry of more importance is, whether the cinna

root.

Jacquin's Americ. At Ceylon "it is particularly owing to a certain kind of wild doves, which, from their feeding on the fruit of the cinnamon-tree, they call cinnamon-eaters, that these trees grow so plentifully in this island." A Seba Phil. Trans. vol. xxxvi. p. 105.

+ It is necessary to observe, that the ancient signification of these names is very different from the modern. The younger branches of the tree, with their bark covering them, were called by the Greek writers xuvvaμμov, cinnamomum, and sometimes Evhonasia, or cassia lignea; but when they were divested of their bark, which by its being dried became tubular, this bark was denominated nacia supy, or cassia fistula.-But as in process of time the wood of this tree was found useless, they stripped the bark from it, and brought that only; which custom prevails at this day. See account of the cinnamon-tree by Dr. Watson, Phil Trans. vol. xlvii.

mon of Ceylon is of the same species as that growing in Malabar, Sumatra, &c. differing only through the influence of the soil and climate in which it grows, or from the culture or manner of curing the cinnamon. Mr. White and Mr. Combes, who have investigated this subject with considerable attention, agree with Gracias, and determine this question in the affirınative *.

The use of the cinnamon-tree is not confined to the bark, for it is remarkable that the leaves, the fruit, and the root, all yield oils of very different qualities, and of considerable value: that produced

According to many botanical writers, the principal marks of distinction of these plants are to be found in the leaf, which in the cinnamon of Ceylon is more oval and less pointed than the others, and the nerves do not reach to the margin; while in the cinnamon of Sumatra they are said to be continued to the extremity of the leaf.-Respecting the bark it is well known to be less warm and grateful to the taste, manifesting that viscosity on being chewed, which is never observable in the Ceylon cinnamon. But Mr. White, with the assistance of Dr. Matty, carefully compared the specimens of the cinnamon-tree, (commonly called cassia) which he had from Sumatra, with those from Ceylon, preserved in the British Museum, which were the collections of Boerhaave, Courteen, Plukenet, and Petiver, and found the difference so inconsiderable, as fully to justify his opinion. In Murray's edition of the Systema Veg. we find superadded to the description of cassia, "Esse modo Varietatem præcedentis, (cinnam.) foliis angustioribus et obtusioribus," Thunberg in Act. Scockh. 1780, p. 56. The difference of the bark itself is thus stated by Ray, " Officinæ nostræ cassiam ligneam a cinnamomo seu canella distinctam faciunt, cassiam cinnamomo crassiorem plerumque esse colore rubicundiorem, substantiâ duriorem, solidiorem et compactiorem, gustu magis glutinoso, odore quidem et sapore cinnamomum aptius referre, tamen cinnamomo imbecilliorem et minus vegetam esse ex accurata observatione Tho. Johnson." But Mr. White says, "From the specimens I shall now produce, it will most plainly appear, that these differences are merely accidents, arising from the age of the canella, the part of the tree from whence it is gathered, and from the manner of cultivating and curing it." And he observes, " If any conjecture can arise from hence, it may be, that the cinnamon of Ceylon was formerly, as well as that of Sumatra and Malabar, called cassia; but that the Dutch writers, being acquainted with the excellent qualities which the ancients ascribed to their cinnamon, chose to add the name cinnamon to that of cassia; and in process of time they have found the name of cinnamon more profitable than that of cassia, by which we choose to call our canella, to our national loss of many thousands a year." (Phil. Trans. vol. 1. p. 887.) How far the reasoning of Mr. White is really well founded, we leave to the judgment of others; it may however be remarked, that his opinion is not a little supported, from the consideration that the cinna mon plant varies exceedingly, even in the island of Ceylon, where Burman collected nine different sorts, and Seba actually describes ten.