1869 Cooling Cups and Dainty drinks by William Terrington

14S

Essences,

8fc.

useful in infusing a peculiar cooling taste to summer beverages. It sows its own seed, and comes up without care ; and its beautiful blue flowers (which appear from May till October) are very useful in company with those of the nasturtium in deco- rating salads. Cinnamon . — This well-known spice is the inner bark of the Laurus cinnamomum, a species of

It is largely cultivated in the Island of

laurel.

in the neighbourhood of Co-

Ceylon,

especially

lombo. The cinnamon-tree emits no smell while growing, except a little from the blossoms, which are white. The leaves and footstalks are slightly aromatic ; but it is the bark alone which gives out that delicious odour, to which no other perfume

Moore’s beautiful simile is per-

bears resemblance.

fectly true to Nature as regards this tree :

“ The dream of the injured patient mind, That smiles at the wrongs of men, Is found in the bruised and wounded rind Of cinnamon, sweetest then.”

The cinnamon bark, before being dried, is of a pale yellow, about the thickness of parchment. The

rather pliable, and

that quality

distin-

best

is

well

as

as

kinds,

from the

inferior

guishes

it

and

browner

the commoner being

colour,

its