Nancy Hall, age 11, of Vancouver 8, British Columbia, Canada, for her question:

Where do we get cinnamon?

Most of the fragrant cinnamon spice comes from Ceylon. It is harvested there from a native tree. When left to itself, the lovely evergreen cinnamon tree can grow 30 feet tall. Its large glossy leaves are oval shaped and it bears pretty little yellowish flowers followed by fruits that look somewhat like acorns. However, the cultivated cinnamon tree is not allowed to grow to its full size and beauty.

The fragrant spice is in the bark of the tree. It is richest in the inner layer of bark that grows on the slender young twigs. The way to ensure a large harvest of cinnamon spice is to coax the tree to sprout a lot of slim young twigs. This is done by cutting the tree down to size as it grows, forcing it to sprout more twigs. The cinnamon we get is the inner bark taken from twigs that grow on these dwarfted trees. Some is grown in other moist tropical zones but most of our supply comes from Ceylon