2. Kbtsiah', n9*^:e|:p, named only in the plural in Psa. xlv, 8 (Sept. jcaai'a, Vulg. otwia), in connection with myrrh and aloes, as being used to scent garments with. The word comes from the root y^^t to abrade^ and appears to refer to the peeled bark of some species of dnnamon, perhaps differing in this from the preced- ing only as designating some oil or prepared aromatic, of which that denotes the raw material (see Celsii iTts- rob. ii, 860). See Abomatics.
Under Uie name ccutia (which appears to be identi- cal with this last Heb. term) the ancients designated an aromatic bark derived from the East, and employed as an ingredient in costly unguents (Theophr. PUmt. ix, 7 ; Pliny, xii, 48 ; Dioscor. i, 12 ; Diod. Sic. iii, 46 ; Athen. x,449; Plant Curca/. i, 2, 7 ; Yirg. GeoAi,i!66; Martial,vi,56,l;x,97,2; Pers.^a<.ii,64; 1,86). It was obtained from a tree or shrub growing in India and Austria (Herod, ill, 110; Diod. Sic. L c ; Aga-
htMTUi KilMaillMtliWIi,
tharch. in Hudson, i,61 ; Arrian, Alex.r^^ 20 ; but see Pliny, xii, 41), which Pliny (xiii, 48) more closely, but still not adequately describes, and which Columella (iii, 8) saw in Roman fancy gardens. It is clear that the Latin writers by the term ccuia understood both the Oriental product now nnder consideration, as well as some low, sweet herbaceous plant, perhaps the Z>qp4- ne ffnidium, Linn, (see Fee, Flore de Virgili, p. 82, and Du MoUn, Flor. Poet. Ancienne, p. 277) ; but the Greek word, which is first used by Herodotus (ii, 86), who says (iii, 110) the Arabians procured it from a shallow lake in their country, is limited to the Eastern product Dioscorides (1. c.) and Galen enumerate three better sorts of cassia, and there are still in Europe held to be different kinds, but they all are distinguished firom the true cinnamon-tree by their darker color, weaker odor, and less lively taste. The tree from which the l>ark is produced is regarded by naturalists as the Lau^ rus eania (Linn.), that fiourishes in the East Indies and MalatU (Ainslie, Mater. Med. i, 68 sq.) ; yet the broth- ers Nees von Esenbeck (De ciimamomo dispuiat. Bonn, 1828, in the Bokm. ZeUnmg, 1881, No. 84) have shown that this plant (the Laurut catsid) is not a distinct spe- cies, but only a wild or original form of the ctnuomo- nutm CeylonicuM or Zeylamcwn. See the Penny Cydo- pcedicL, s. V. Cassia; Laurus.
The name Cassia has been applied by botanists to a genus containing the plants yielding senna, and to others, as the Ccuda fiiulciy which have nothing to do with the original cassia. " Cassia-buds, *' again, though no doubt produced by a plant belonging to the same, or to some genus allied to that producing cinnamon and cassia, were probably not known in commerce at so early a period as the two latter substances. Dr. Royle, in his Antiquity of Hindoo Medicine^ p. 84, has remarked, ** The csssia of the ancients it is not easy to determine ; that of commerce, Mr. Marshall says, con- sists of only the inferior kinds of cinnamon. Some consider cassia to be distinguished from cinnamon by the outer cellular covering of the bark being scraped off the latter, but allowed to remain on the former. This is, however, the characteristic of the (Cochin-Chi- nese) Cinnamomum aromatieum, as we are informed by Mr. Crawford {Embassy to Siam, p. 470) that it is not cured, like that of Ceylon, by freeing it firom the epi- dermis." There is no doubt that some cassia is pro- duced on the coast of Malabar. The name also would appear to be of Eastern origin, as hasse koronde is one kind of cinnamon, mentioned by Burmann in his Flo^ ra Zeylonka.
The Heb. word hettiak, however, has a strong re- semblance to the hooth and hoost of the Arabs, of which Kooshta is said by their authors to be the Syriac name, and from which there is little doubt that the kootoc of the Greeks and costus of the Latins are derived. KoffTog is enumerated by Theophrastus {Hist. PL ix, 7) among the fragrant substances employcMl in making ointment Three kinds of it are described by Dioscor- ides among his Aromata (i, 15), of which the Arabian is said to be the best, the Indian to hold the second place, and the Syrian the third. An inferior kind is termed by him kittw (i, 12), a word which has a strong resemblance to the Heb. kiddah above. Pliny men- tions only two kinds (xv, 12), the white and the black, brought from India. The Persian writers on Materia Medica in use in India, in giving the above synonymes, evidently refer to two of the three kinds of Costits de- scribed by Dioscorides, one being called Koost Hindee, and the other Koost Arabee. Both these kinds are found in the bazaars of India, and the koot or koost of the natives is often, by European merchants, called In- dian orris, i. e. Iris root, the odor of which it somewhat resembles. The same article is known in Calcutta as Pttchtk, the name under which it is exported to China. The identity of the substance indicated by these vari- ous names was long ago ascertained by Garcias. The boost obtained in the northwestern provinces of India