the main portion is improved,
and the pungency of the bark is increased. Cinnamon was the cassia of
the Jews and ancients. Probably Solomon's ships brought the
much-prized spice from this island. The consumers generally did not
know from whence it came, that was a royal secret, and much mystery
hung about the matter, while the cost was at that period so high as to
make it an exclusive article,--that is to say, it was only to be
afforded by the rich.

The uncleared woodland of the island is very extensive. The forests
must have been of much smaller area when the population was quadruple
its present aggregate, particularly in the north, where the extensive
ruins show how vast in numbers the population must have been. It is
estimated by good authority that there are two and a half million
acres of wild, thickly wooded country, which contain all the varieties
of trees peculiar to the equatorial regions. It is difficult to
overestimate the grandeur of the primeval forest of Ceylon, with its
solemn arches and avenues of evergreen, its majestic palms, and tall
tree-ferns shading silver lakelets. Every pond, large or small, is
sure to be the resort of tall wading-birds and waterfowls. Presently
we come upon a spot where the earth is flecked with golden sunlight,
shifting and evanescent, sifted, as it were, through the gently
vibrating leaves, softly gilding the sombre drapery of the forest.
There is nothing monotonous in a tropical wood; individual outlines
and coloring are in endless variety. The contrasts presented in a
circumscribed space are infinite, while a never-fading bloom
overspreads the whole. Now and again the eye takes in a ravishingly
beautiful effect through the deep-blue vistas stretching away into
mysterious depths. Pressing forward, we come upon a wilderness of
splendid trees, running up seventy or eighty feet towards the sky
without a branch, then spreading out into a glorious canopy of green.
Would that we could fully impress the reader with the unflagging
charm of an equatorial forest. "You will find something far greater in
the woods than you will find in books," said St. Bernard.

Professor Agassiz recorded the names of three hundred varieties of
trees growing in the area of one square mile in a Brazilian forest.
The same abundance and variety exist in Ceylon.

The beauty and value of the native woods of this island cannot fail
promptly to attract the notice and admiration of the stranger. The
calaman