The bark of the Cinnamomum Zeylanicum, a plant so called botanically because growing best in Ceylon. A variety often substituted for it, cassia, comes from China. Cinnamon was known in early times to the Hebrews. It was used in making the anointing-oil (Exodus 30:23), and,further, as a mere perfume (Proverbs 7:17). In the Song of Solomon (4:14) it is mentioned along with other fragrant woods. Gesenius and Lagarde consider the Hebrew ("ḳinnamon") to be a loan-word from the Greek (κιννάμωμον), although Herodotus (3:111) states that the Greeks themselves borrowed it from the Phenicians. It seems that both Hebrew and Greek took it from the Phenician.