Note 83 — VIII.

Sir Emerson Tennent, in his work (vol. i. p. 599), challenges the assertion that Ceylon is the native country of the cinnamon-tree. In no European or Asiatic chronicles is any mention made of cinnamon as a product or article of commerce in Ceylon up to the end of the thirteenth century. Although it was from the earliest times imported into Europe from Africa through Arabia, the natives trading with Ceylon first knew of the existence on the island of this important shrub about the twelfth or thirteenth century. Hence Sir Emerson looks upon Africa as the native country of the cinnamon-tree.