Intercourse between India and the Western World from the Earliest Times to the Fall of Rome c11.75

c11.75

*Malabathrum, Cassia*. Both these were the products of the cinnamon tree, a kind of laurel, several varieties of which were used in ancient trade. The true home of the cinnamon plant was, of course, the cinnamon country of the Somali coast, and the adjacent parts of Arabia Felix. Pure cinnamon fetched 1500 denarii per pound. This was the stems and bark of the tree, and was used for making unguents, for incense, and for a condiment. Malabathrum, on the other hand, consisted of the leaves of a cinnamon plant (perhaps *C. tamala*), used for the manufacture of a famous unguent, known chiefly from the reference in Horace (ii. 7. 89), and came from the Himālayas.