Dana Michaud, age 12, of St. Catharines, Ont., Canada, for his question:

Where does cinnamon grow?

Cinnamon is taken from an evergreen laurel that thrives in the steamy tropics. The best varieties are grown in Ceylon, and parts of Indo China. Other cinnamon spice is taken from the cassia tree or Chinese cinnamon that flourishes in China. The fragrant spice we use to flavor fancy rolls and sweet breads is in the bark of the cinnamon, and plants cultivated for the spice market, as a rule, are cut down to bushes. Left to grow freely, the cinnamon of Ceylon may become a wide leafed tree 30 feet tall.

Twice a year, in spring and fall, the inner bark of the twigs and lower branches is taken from the plant and left in the warm sun. As it dries, the rusty brown bark rolls itself into furled sticks. Sometimes the sticks are used as flavoring and sometimes the dry bark is ground into powder.