1872 Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (Mixellany)

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 laurel. It is largely cultivated in the Island of Ceylon, especially in the neighbourhood of Co- 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 bears resemblance. Moore's beautiful simile is per- 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 best is rather pliable, and that quality distin- guishes it from the inferior kinds, as well as its colour, the commoner being browner and