Tamalapatra Folium indurn. Indian leaf: the leaf of the cinamomum five canella malavarica & javanenfis C. B. Laurus Cqffia Linn, or cafia-lignea tree, brought from the East Indies. It is of a firm texture; of an oblong oval figure, pointed at both ends; smooth and glossy on one side, which is the upper, and less so on the lower; of a yellowish green colour on the former, and a pale brown-ish on the latter; furnished with three ribs, running its whole length, very protuberant on the lower side, and two smaller ones which bound the edges.

These leaves have a remarkable affinity, in one respect, with the cafia or bark of the tree, both the leaves themselves and their pedicles being, like it, extremely mucilaginous: chewed, they render the saliva flimy and glutinous: in-fused in water, they give out a large proportion of a strong tenacious mucilage. But of the aromatic flavour, which is strong in the bark, the leaves, as brought to us, have very little: they scarcely discover any warmth or pungency to the taste, and have little or no smell unless well rubbed, when they yield an agreeable, though weak, spicy odour. They are no otherwise made use of than as an ingredient in mithridate and theriaca-, and are, when in their greatest perfection, far inferiour to the mace which our college directs as a fucceda-neum to them.