Chapter XXXIX: Part 39

=Botanical Origin=—_Maranta arundinacea_[2330] L.—An herbaceous branching plant, 4 to 6 feet high, with ovate-lanceolate, puberulous or nearly glabrous leaves, and small white flowers, solitary or in lax racemes. It is a native of the tropical parts of America from Mexico to Brazil, and of the West Indian Islands; and under the slightly different form known as _M. indica_ Tussac, it occurs in Bengal, Java and the Philippines. This Asiatic variety is now found in the West Indies and Tropical America, but apparently as an introduced plant.[2331]

=History=—The history of arrowroot is comparatively recent. Passing over some early references of French writers on the West Indies to an _Herbe aux flèches_, which plant it is impossible to identify with _Maranta_, we find in Sloane’s catalogue of Jamaica plants (1696), _Canna Indica radice alba alexipharmaca_. This plant, discovered in Dominica, was sent thence to Barbadoes and subsequently to Jamaica, it being, says Sloane, “_very much esteemed for its alexipharmack qualities_.” It was observed, he adds, that the native Indians used the root of the plant with success against the poison of their arrows, “_by only mashing and applying it to the poison’d wounds_”: and further, that it cures the poison of the manchineel (_Hippomane Mancinella_ L.), of the wasps of Guadaloupe, and even stops “_a begun gangreen_.”[2332]

[2330] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 23 (1877).

[2331] We accept the opinion of Körnicke (_Monographiæ Marantaccarum Prodromus, Bull. de la Soc. imp. des Naturalistes de Moscou_, xxxv. 1862, i.) that _Maranta arundinacea_ L. and _M. indica_ Tuss. are one and the same species. Grisebach maintains them as distinct (_Flora of the British West Indian Islands_, 1864, 605), allowing both to be natives of Tropical America; but he fails to point out any important character by which they may be distinguished from each other. According to Miquel (_Linnæa_, xviii. 1844. 71) the plant in the herbarium of Linnæus labelled _M. arundinacea_, is _M. indica_. We have ourselves made arrowroot from the fresh rhizomes of _M. arundinacea_, in order to compare it with an authentic specimen obtained in Java from _M. indica_: no difference could be found between them.

[2332] Sloane, _Catal. plant. quæ in ins. Jamaica sponte proveniunt, vel vulgò coluntur_, Lond. 1696. 122; also _Hist. of Jamaica_, i. (1707) 253.

Patrick Browne (1756) notices the reputed alexipharmic virtues of _Maranta_, which was then cultivated in many gardens in Jamaica, and says that the root “_washed, pounded fine and bleached, makes a fine flour and starch_”—sometimes used as food when provisions are scarce.[2333]

Hughes, when writing of Barbadoes in 1750, describes arrowroot as a very useful plant, the juice mixed with water and drunk being regarded as “_a preservative against any poison of an hot nature_”; while from the root the finest starch is made, far excelling that of wheat.[2334] The properties of _Maranta arundinacea_ as a counter-poison are insisted upon at some length by Lunan,[2335] who concludes his notice of the plant by detailing the process for extracting starch from the rhizome.

Arrowroot came into use in England about the commencement of the present century, the supplies being obtained, as it would appear, from Jamaica.[2336]

The statements of Sloane, which are confirmed by Browne and Lunan, plainly indicate the origin and meaning of the word _arrowroot_, and disprove the notion of the learned C. F. Ph. von Martius (1867) that the name is derived from that of the Arnac or Aroaquis Indians of South America, who call the finest sort of fecula they obtain from the Mandioc _Aru-aru_. It is true that _Maranta arundinacea_ is known at the present day in Brazil as _Araruta_, but the name is certainly a corruption of the English word _arrowroot_, the plant according to general report having been introduced.[2337]

=Manufacture=—For the production of arrowroot, the rhizomes are dug up after the plant has attained its complete maturity, which in Georgia is at the beginning of winter. The scales which cover them are removed and the rhizomes washed; the latter are then ground in a mill, and the pulp is washed on sieves, or in washing machines constructed for the purpose, in order to remove from it the starch. This is allowed to settle down in pure water, is then drained and finally dried with a gentle heat. Instead of being crushed in a mill, the rhizomes are sometimes grated to a pulp by a rasping machine.

In all stages of the process for making arrowroot, nice precautions have to be taken to avoid contamination with dust, iron mould, insects, or anything which can impart colour or taste to the product. The rhizome contains about 68 per cent. of water, and yields about a fifth of its weight of starch.[2338]

[2333] _Civil and Natural History of Jamaica_, 1756. 112. 113.

[2334] _Natural History of Barbados_, 1750. 221.

[2335] _Hortus Jamaicensis_, i. (1814) 30.

[2336] Thus in 1799 there were exported from Jamaica 24 casks and boxes of “_Indian Arrowroot_.”—Renny, _Hist. of Jamaica_, 235.

[2337] Since the above was written, the following lines bearing on this question have been received from Mr. Spruce:—“ ... I know not Martius’ derivation of ‘_arrowroot_.’ On the Amazon it is called ‘_ararúta_’—plainly a corruption of the English name, and explained by the fact that it was first cultivated, as I was told, from tubers obtained in the East Indies.”

[2338] This was in the German colony of Blumenau in Southern Brazil—Eberhard, _Arch. der Pharm._ 134 (1868) 257.

=Description=—Arrowroot is a brilliant white, insipid, inodorous, powder, more or less aggregated into lumps which seldom exceed a pea in size; when pressed it emits a slight crackling sound. It exhibits the general properties of starch, consisting entirely of granules which are subspherical, or broadly and irregularly egg-shaped; when seen in water they show a distinct stratification in the form of fine concentric rings around a small star-like hilum. They have a diameter of 5 to 7 mkm. when observed in the air or under benzol. If the water in which they lie be cautiously heated on the object-stage of the microscope, the tumefaction of the granules will be found to begin exactly at 70° C. Heated to 100° C. with 20 parts of distilled water, arrowroot yields a semi-transparent jelly of somewhat earthy taste and smell. By hydrochloric acid of sp. gr. 1·06, arrowroot is but imperfectly dissolved at 40° C.

The specific gravity of all varieties of starch is affected by the water which they retain at the ordinary temperature of the air. Arrowroot after prolonged exposure to an atmosphere of average moisture, and then kept at 100° C. till its weight was constant, was found to have lost 13·3 per cent. of water. On subsequent exposure to the air, it regained its former proportion of water.

Weighed in any liquid which is entirely devoid of action on starch, as petroleum or benzol, the sp. gr. of arrowroot was found by one of us to be 1·504; but 1·565 when the powder had been previously dried at 100° C.

=Microscopic Structure of Arrowroot and of Starch in general=—The granules are built up of layers,—a structure which may be rendered evident by the gradual action of chloride of calcium, chromic acid, or an ammoniacal solution of cupric oxide. When one of these liquids in a proper state of dilution is made to act upon starch, or when for that purpose a liquid is chosen which does not act upon it energetically, such as diastase, bile, pepsin, or saliva, it is easy to obtain a residue, which according to Nägeli, is no longer capable of swelling up in boiling water, nor is immediately turned blue by iodine, except on the addition of sulphuric acid; but which is dissolved by ammoniacal cupric oxide. These are the essential properties of cellulose; and this residue has been regarded as such by Nägeli, while the dissolved portion has been distinguished as _Granulose_ (Maschke, 1852).

C. Nägeli in his important monograph on starch[2339] has described the action of saliva when digested with starch for a day, at a temperature of 40° to 47° C.; he says that the residue is a skeleton, corresponding in form to the original grain but somewhat smaller, light, and very mobile in water. He concludes that its interstitial spaces must have been previously filled with granulose.

This experiment, which has been repeated by one of us (F.), does not in our opinion warrant all the inferences that Nägeli has drawn from it: it is true that many separate parts of the grain are dissolved by the saliva, while others have disappeared down to a mere film, and others again have been attacked in a very irregular manner. But we cannot agree with the statement that anything comparable to a skeleton of the grain has been left. After longer action at a higher temperature, which however must not exceed 65° C., a more copious dissolution of the starch, either by saliva or by bile, takes place; but in no case is it complete.[2340]

[2339] _Die Stärkekörner_, Zürich, 1858. 4°, also W. Nägeli, _Stärkegruppe_, etc., Leipzig, 1874.

[2340] Further particulars on this question may be found in my paper _Ueber Stärke und Cellulose—Archiv der Pharmacie_, 196 (1871) 7.—F. A. F.

=Chemistry of Starch=—Its composition answers to the formula (C₆H₁₀O₅)₂+3 OH₂, or when dried at 100° C., C₆H₁₀O₅. Musculus however showed, in 1861, that by the action of dilute acids or of _Diastase_, starch is resolved into _Dextrin_, C₁₂H₂₀O₁₀, and _Dextrose_, C₆H₁₂O₆, with which decomposition, the formula, C₁₈H₃₀O₁₅, would be more in accord. Sachsse (1877) on the other hand advocates the formula C₃₀H₆₂O₃₁ + 12 OH₂.

Cold water is not without action on starch; if the latter be continuously triturated with it, the filtrate, in which no particles can be detected by the microscope, will assume a blue colour on addition of iodine, without the formation of a precipitate. The proportion of starch thus brought into solution is infinitely small, and always at the expense of the integrity of the grains. It is even probable that the solution in this case is due to the minute amount of heat, which must of necessity be developed by the trituration.

Certain reagents capable of attacking starch act upon it in very different ways. The action in the cold of concentrated aqueous solutions of easily soluble neutral salts or of chloral hydrate is remarkable. Potassium bromide or iodide, or calcium chloride for instance, cause the grains to swell, and render them soluble in cold water. At a certain degree of dilution a perfectly clear liquid is formed, which at first contains neither dextrin nor sugar; it is coloured blue, but is not precipitated by iodine water; and starch can be thrown down from it by alcohol. This precipitate, though entirely devoid of the structural peculiarity of starch, still exhibits some of the leading properties of that substance; it is coloured in the same manner by iodine, does not dissolve even when fresh in ammoniacal cupric oxide, and after drying is insoluble in water, whether cold or boiling. The progress of the solvent is most easily traced when calcium chloride is used, as this salt acts more slowly than the others we have mentioned. It leaves scarcely any perceptible residue. This fact in our opinion militates against the notion that starch is composed of a peculiar amylaceous substance, deposited within a skeleton of cellulose.

The remarkable action of iodine upon starch was discovered in 1814 by Colin and Gaultier de Claubry. It is extremely different in degree, according to the peculiar kind of starch, the proportion of iodine, and the nature of the substance the grains are impregnated with, before or after their treatment with iodine. The action is even entirely arrested (no blue colour being produced) by the presence in certain proportion of quinine, tannin, _Aqua Picis_, and of other bodies.

The combination of iodine with starch does not take place in equivalent proportions, and is moreover easily overcome by heat. The iodine combined with starch amounts at the utmost to 7·5 per cent. The compound is most readily formed in the presence of water, and then produces a deep indigo-blue. Almost all other substances capable of penetrating starch grains, weaken the colour of the iodine compound to violet, reddish yellow, yellow, or greenish blue. These different shades, the production of which has been described by Nägeli with great diffuseness, are merely the colours which belong to iodine itself in the solid, liquid, or gaseous form. They must be referred to the fact that the particles of iodine diffuse themselves in a peculiar but hitherto unexplained manner within the grain or in the swollen and dissolved starch.

=Commerce of Arrowroot=—The chief kinds of arrowroot found in commerce are known as _Bermuda_, _St. Vincent_, and _Natal_; but that of Jamaica and other West India Islands, of Brazil, Sierra Leone, and the East Indies, are quoted in price-currents, at least occasionally. Of these the Bermuda enjoys the highest reputation and commands by far the highest price; but its good quality is shared by the arrowroot of other localities, from which, when equally pure, it can in nowise be distinguished. Greenish,[2341] however, points out that in Natal arrowroot the layers (or laminæ) are more obvious than in other varieties, although it appears that the former is also produced by Maranta.

The importations of arrowroot into the United Kingdom during the year 1870 amounted to 21,770 cwt., value £33,063. Of this quantity the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies furnished nearly 17,000 cwt., and the colony of Natal about 3000 cwt. The exports from St. Vincent in 1874 were 2,608,100 lb, those of the Bermudas in 1876 only 45,520 lb.[2342] The shipments from the colony of Natal during the years 1866 to 1876 varied from 1,076 cwt. in 1873 to 4,305 cwt. in 1867.[2343]

[2341] _Yearbook of Pharm._ (1875) 529.

[2342] Papers relating to H.M. Colonial Possessions. Reports for 1875-76. Presented to both Houses of Parliament, July 1877. 54. 4.

[2343] Statist. Abstr. for the several Colonial and other Possessions of the United Kingdom, 14th number, 1878. p. 60.

=Uses=—Arrowroot boiled with water or milk is a much-valued food in the sick-room. It is also an agreeable article of diet in the form of pudding or blancmange.

=Adulteration=—Other starches than that of _Maranta_ are occasionally sold under the name of _Arrowroot_. Their recognition is only possible by the aid of the microscope.

Substitutes for Arrowroot.

_Potato Starch_—This substance, known in trade as _Farina_ or _Potato Flour_, is made from the tubers of the potato (_Solanum tuberosum_ L.) by a process analogous to that followed in the preparation of arrowroot. It has the following characters:—examined under the microscope, the granules are seen to be chiefly of two sorts, the first small and spherical, the second of much larger size, often 100 mkm. in length, having an irregularly circular, oval or egg-shaped outline, finely marked with concentric rings round a minute inconspicuous hilum. When heated in water, the grains swell considerably even at 60° C. Hydrochloric acid, sp. gr. 1·06, dissolves them at 40° quickly and almost completely, the granules being no longer deposited, as in the case of arrowroot similarly treated. The mixture of arrowroot and hydrochloric acid is inodorous, but that of potato starch has a peculiar though not powerful odour.

_Canna Starch, Tous-les-Mois_,[2344] _Toulema, Tolomane_—A species of _Canna_ is cultivated in the West India Islands, especially St. Kitts, for the sake of a peculiar starch which, since about the year 1836, has been extracted from its rhizomes by a process similar to that adopted in making arrowroot. The specific name of the plant is still undetermined; it is said to agree with _Canna edulis_ Ker (_C. indica_ Ruiz et Pavon).[2345]

[2344] It is commonly stated that the name _Tous-les-mois_ was given in consequence of the plant flowering _all the year round_. But this explanation appears improbable: no such name is mentioned by Rochefort, Aublet, or Descourtilz, who all describe the _Balisier_ or _Canna_. It seems more likely that the term is the result of an attempt to confer a meaning on an ancient name—perhaps _Touloula_, which is one of the Carib designations for _Canna_ and _Calathea_.

[2345] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medic. Plants_, part 8 (1876).

The starch, which bears the same name as the plant, is a dull white powder, having a peculiar satiny or lustrous aspect, by reason of the extraordinary magnitude of the starch granules of which it is composed. These granules examined under the microscope are seen to be flattened and of irregular form, as circular, oval, oblong, or oval-truncate. The centre of the numerous concentric rings with which each granule is marked, is usually at one end rather than in the centre of a granule. The hilum is inconspicuous. The granules though far larger than those of the potato, are of the same density as the smaller forms of that starch, and, like them, float perfectly on chloroform. When heated, they begin to burst at 72° C. Dilute hydrochloric acid acts upon them as it does on arrowroot.

Canna starch boiled with 20 times its weight of water affords a jelly less clear and more tenacious than that of arrowroot, yet applicable to exactly the same purposes. The starch is but little known and not much esteemed in Europe; it was exported in 1876 from St. Kitts to the amount of 51,873 lb, besides 5,300 lb arrowroot starch.[2346]

_Curcuma Starch, Tikor_—The pendulous, colourless tubers of some species of _Curcuma_, but especially of _C. angustifolia_ Roxb. and _C. leucorrhiza_ Roxb., have long been utilized in Southern India for the preparation of a sort of arrowroot, known by the Hindustani name of _Tikor_, or _Tikhur_, and sometimes called by Europeans _East Indian Arrowroot_.[2347] The granules of this substance much resemble those of _Maranta_, but they are neither spherical nor egg-shaped. On the contrary, they are rather to be described as flat discs, 5 to 7 mkm. thick, of elliptic or ovoid outline, sometimes truncate; many attain a length of 60 to 70 mkm. They are always beautifully stratified both on the face and on the edge. The hilum is generally situated at the narrower end. We have observed that when heated in water, the tumefaction of the grains commences at 72° C.

Curcuma starch, which in its general properties agrees with common arrowroot, is rather extensively manufactured in Travancore, Cochin and Canara on the south-western coast of India, but in a very rude manner. Drury[2348] states that it is a favourite article of diet among the natives, and that it is exported from Travancore and Madras; we can add that it is not known as a special kind in the English market, and that the article we have seen offered in the London drug sales as _East Indian Arrowroot_ was the starch of _Maranta_.

[2346] Page 102 of the Reports quoted at p. 633, note 2.

[2347] Living roots of the plant used for making this arrowroot at Cochin, have been kindly forwarded to us by A. F. Sealy, Esq. of that place.

[2348] _Useful Plants of India_, ed. 2. 1873. 168.

ZINGIBERACEÆ.

RHIZOMA ZINGIBERIS.

_Radix Zingiberis_; _Ginger_; F. _Gingembre_; G. _Ingwer_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Zingiber officinale_ Roscoe (_Amomum Zingiber_ L.), a reed-like plant, with annual leafy stems, 3 to 4 feet high, and flowers in cone-shaped spikes borne on other stems thrown up from the rhizome. It is a native of Asia, in the warmer countries of which it is universally cultivated,[2349] but not known in a wild state. It has been introduced into most tropical countries, and is now found in the West Indies, South America, Tropical Western Africa, and Queensland in Australia.

=History=—Ginger is known in India under the old name of _Sringavera_, derived possibly from the Greek Ζιγγίβερι. As a spice it was used among the Greeks and Romans, who appear to have received it by way of the Red Sea, inasmuch as they considered it to be a production of Southern Arabia.

In the list of imports from the Red Sea into Alexandria, which in the second century of our era were there liable to the Roman fiscal duty (_vectigal_), _Zingiber_ occurs among other Indian spices.[2350] During the middle ages it is frequently mentioned in similar lists, and evidently constituted an important item in the commercial relations between Europe and the East. Ginger thus appears in the tariff of duties levied at Acre in Palestine about A.D. 1173;[2351] in that of Barcelona[2352] in 1221; Marseilles[2353] in 1228; and Paris[2354] in 1296. The _Tarif des Péages_, or customs tariff, of the Counts of Provence in the middle of the 13th century, provides for the levying of duty at the towns of Aix, Digne, Valensole, Tarascon, Avignon, Orgon, Arles, &c., on various commodities imported from the East. These included spices, as pepper, _ginger_, cloves, zedoary, galangal, cubebs, saffron, canella, cumin, anise; dye-stuffs, such as lac, indigo, Brazil wood, and especially alum from Castilia and Volcano; and groceries, as racalicia (liquorice), sugar and dates.[2355]

In England ginger must have been tolerably well known even prior to the Norman Conquest, for it is frequently named in the Anglo-Saxon leech-books of the 11th century, as well as in the Welsh “Physicians of Myddvai” (see Appendix). During the 13th and 14th centuries it was, next to pepper, the commonest of spices, costing on an average nearly 1_s._ 7_d._ per lb., or about the price of a sheep.[2356]

[2349] The mode of cultivation is described by Buchanan, _Journey from Madras through Mysore, etc._ ii. (1807) 469.—Fig. of the plant in Bentley and Trimen’s _Medic. Plants_, part 32 (1878).

[2350] Vincent, _Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients_, ii. (1807) 695.

[2351] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades_; _Lois_, ii. (1843) 176.

[2352] Capmany, _Memorias sobre la Marina, etc. de Barcelona_, Madrid, ii. (1779) 3.

[2353] Méry et Guindon, _Hist. des Actes ... de la Municipalité de Marseille_, i. (1841) 372.

[2354] _Revue archéologique_, ix. (1852) 213.

[2355] _Collection de Cartulaires de France_, Paris, viii. (1857) pp. lxxiii-xci., Abbaye de St. Victor, Marseilles.

[2356] Rogers, _Hist. of Agriculture and Prices in England_, i. (1866) 629.

The merchants of Italy, about the middle of the 14th century, knew three kinds of ginger, called respectively _Belledi_, _Colombino_, and _Micchino_. These terms may be explained thus:—_Belledi_ or _Baladi_ is an Arabic word, which, as applied to ginger, would signify _country_ or _wild_, i.e. _common ginger_. _Colombino_ refers to Columbum, Kolam or Quilon, a port in Travancore frequently mentioned in the middle ages. Ginger termed _Micchino_ denotes that the spice had been brought from or by way of Mecca.[2357]

Ginger preserved in syrup, and sometimes called _Green Ginger_, was also imported during the middle ages, and regarded as a delicacy of the choicest kind.

The plant affording ginger must have been known to Marco Polo (_circa_ 1280-90), who speaks of observing it both in China and India. John of Montecorvino, who visited India about 1292 (see p. 521), describes ginger as a plant like a flag, the root of which can be dug up and transported. Nicolo Conti also gave some description of the plant and of the collection of the root, as witnessed by him in India.[2358]

The Venetians received ginger by way of Egypt; yet some of the superior kinds were conveyed from India overland by the Black Sea, as stated by Marino Sanudo[2359] about 1306.

Ginger was introduced into America by Francisco de Mendoça, who took it from the East Indies to New Spain.[2360] It was shipped for commercial purposes from the Island of St. Domingo as early at least as 1585; and from Barbados in 1654.[2361] According to Renny,[2362] 22,053 cwt. were exported from the West Indies to Spain in 1547.

[2357] Yule, _Book of Ser Marco Polo_, ii. (1871) 316.—See, however, Heyd, _Levantehandel_, II. (1879) 601.

[2358] See Appendix.

[2359] Marinus Sanutus, _Liber secretorum fidelium crucis_, Hanoviæ (1611) 22.

[2360] Monardes, _Historia de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias occidentales_, Sevilla, (1574) 99.

[2361] _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series_, 1574-1660, Lond. 1860, p. 4; see also pp. 414, 434.

[2362] Renny, _Hist. of Jamaica_, Lond. 1807. 154.

=Description=—Ginger is known in two forms, namely the rhizome dried with its epidermis, in which case it is called _coated_; or deprived of epidermis, and then termed _scraped_ or _uncoated_. The pieces, which are called by the spice-dealers _races_ or _hands_, rarely exceed 4 inches in length, and have a somewhat palmate form, being made up of a series of short, laterally compressed, lobe-like shoots or knobs, the summit of each of which is marked by a depression indicating the former attachment of the leafy stem.

To produce the _uncoated ginger_, which is that preferred for medicinal use, the fresh rhizome is scraped, washed, and then dried in the sun.

Thus prepared, it has a pale buff hue, and a striated, somewhat fibrous surface. It breaks easily, exhibiting a short and farinaceous fracture with numerous bristle-like fibres. When cut with a knife the younger or terminal portion of the rhizome appears pale yellow, soft and amylaceous, while the older part is flinty, hard and resinous.

_Coated ginger_, or that which has been dried without the removal of the epidermis, is covered with a wrinkled, striated brown integument, which imparts to it a somewhat coarse and crude appearance, which is usually remarkably less developed on the flat parts of the rhizome. Internally, it is usually of a less bright and delicate hue than ginger from which the cortical part has been removed. Much of it indeed is dark, horny and resinous.

Ginger has an agreeable aromatic odour with a strong pungent taste.

=Varieties=—Those at present found in the London market are distinguished as _Jamaica_, _Cochin_, _Bengal_, and _African_. The first three are _scraped_ gingers; the last named is a _coated_ ginger, that is to say, it still retains its epidermis. Jamaica Ginger is the sort most esteemed; and next to it the Cochin. But of each kind there are several qualities, presenting considerable variation _inter se_.

Scraped or decorticated ginger is often bleached, either by being subjected to the fumes of burning sulphur, or by immersion for a short time in solution of chlorinated lime. Much of that seen in the grocers’ shops looks as if it had been whitewashed, and in fact is slightly coated with calcareous matter,—either sulphate or carbonate of calcium.[2363]

[2363] Mr. Garside (_Pharm. Journ._ April 18, 1874) found both. We have not observed the carbonate to be used.

=Microscopic Structure=—A transverse section of coated ginger exhibits a brown, horny external layer, about one millimètre broad, separated by a fine line from the whitish mealy interior portion, through the tissue of which numerous vascular bundles and resin-cells are irregularly scattered. The external tissue consists of a loose outer layer, and an inner composed of tabular cells: these are followed by peculiar short prosenchymatous cells, the walls of which are sinuous on transverse section and partially thickened, imparting a horny appearance. This delicate felted tissue forms the striated surface of _scraped ginger_, and is the principal seat of the resin and volatile oil, which here fill large spaces. The large-celled parenchyme which succeeds is loaded with starch, and likewise contains numerous masses of resin and drops of oil. The starch granules are irregularly spherical, attaining at the utmost 40 mkm. Certain varieties of ginger, owing to the starch having been rendered gelatinous by scalding, are throughout horny and translucent. The circle of vascular bundles which separates the outer layers and the central portion is narrow, and has the structure of the corresponding circle or nucleus-sheath in turmeric.

=Chemical Composition=—Ginger contains a volatile oil which is the only constituent of the drug that has hitherto been investigated. By distilling 112 lb. of Jamaica ginger with water in the usual way, we obtained 4½ ounces of this oil, or about ¼ per cent. It is a pale yellow liquid of sp. gr. 0·878, having the peculiar odour of ginger, but not its pungent taste. It dissolves but sparingly in alcohol (0·83); and deviates the ray of polarized light 21°.6 to the left, when examined in a column 50 mm. long. We learn from kind information given us (1878) by Messrs. Schimmel & Co. at Leipzig, that they obtain as much as 2·2 per cent. of oil from good ginger.

The burning taste of ginger is due to a resin which we have not examined, but which well deserves careful analysis. Protocatechuic acid, which is so commonly afforded by resins (see page 243), is also produced by melting the resin of ginger with caustic potash, as shown in 1877 by Stenhouse and Groves.

=Commerce=—Great Britain imported of ginger as follows:—

1868 1869 1870 1871 1872
52,194 cwt. 34,535 cwt. 33,854 cwt. 32,723 cwt. 32,174 cwt.

In 1876 the imports were 62,164 cwt., valued at £169,252.

The drug was received in 1872 thus:—

From Egypt 4,923 cwt.
” Sierra Leone 6,167 ”
” British India 13,310 ”
” British West Indies 7,543 ”
” other countries 231 ”
------
Total 32,174

The shipments from Jamaica during the years 1866 to 1876 varied from 599,786 lb. in 1872 to 1,728,075 in 1867. In 1876 there were exported 1,603,764 lb., valued at £28,882.[2364]

=Uses=—Ginger is an agreeable aromatic and stomachic, and as such is often a valuable addition to other medicines. It is much more largely employed as a condiment than as a drug.

RHIZOMA CURCUMÆ.

_Radix Curcumæ_;[2365] _Turmeric_; F. _Curcuma_; G. _Gelbwurzel_, _Kurkuma_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Curcuma longa_[2366] L.—Turmeric is indigenous to Southern Asia, and is there largely cultivated both on the continent and in the islands.

=History=—Dioscorides mentions an Indian plant as a kind of _Cyperus_ (Κύπειρος) resembling ginger, but having when chewed a yellow colour and bitter taste: probably turmeric was intended. Garcia de Orta (1563), as well as Fragoso (1572), describe turmeric as _Crocus indicus_. A list of drugs sold in the city of Frankfort about the year 1450, names _Curcuma_ along with zedoary and ginger.[2367]

In its native countries, it has from remote times been highly esteemed both as a condiment and a dye-stuff; in Europe, it has always been less appreciated than the allied spices of the ginger tribe. In an inventory of the effects of a Yorkshire tradesman, dated 20th Sept., 1578, we find enumerated—“_x. owncis of turmeracke, x d._”[2368]

[2364] Statist. Abstract (as quoted p. 633, note 3), p. 71.

[2365] _Curcuma_ from the Persian _kurkum_, a name applied also to saffron. The origin of the word _Turmeric_ is not known to us; _Terra merita_ seems to be a corruption of it.

[2366] Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 9. (1876).

[2367] Flückiger, _Die Frankfurter Liste_, Halle, 1873. 11.

[2368] Raine, _Wills and Inventories of the Archdeaconry of Richmond_ (Surtees Society), 1853. 277.

=Description=—The base of the scrape thickens in the first year into an ovate rootstock; this afterwards throws out shoots, forming lateral or secondary rhizomes, each emitting roots, which branch into fibres or are sometimes enlarged as colourless spindle-shaped tubers, rich in starch. The lateral rhizomes are doubtless in a condition to develope themselves as independent plants when separated from the parent. The central rhizomes formerly known as _Curcuma rotunda_, and the elongated lateral ones as _Curcuma longa_, were regarded by Linnæus as the production of distinct species.

The radical tubers of some species of _Curcuma_, as _C. angustifolia_ Roxb., are used for making a sort of arrowroot (p. 637). Sometimes they are dried, and constitute the peculiar kind of turmeric which the Chinese call _Yuh-kin_.[2369]

The turmeric of commerce consists of the two sorts of rhizome just mentioned, namely, the _central_ or _round_ and the _lateral_ or _long_. The former are ovate, pyriform or subspherical, sometimes pointed at the upper end and crowned with the remains of leaves, while the sides are beset with those of roots and marked with concentric ridges. The diameter is very variable, but is seldom less than ¾ of an inch, and is frequently much more. They are often cut and usually scalded in order to destroy their vitality and facilitate drying.

The lateral rhizomes are subcylindrical, attenuated towards either end, generally curved, covered with a rugose skin, and marked more or less plainly with transverse rings. Sometimes one, two or more short knobs or shoots grow out on one side. The rhizomes, whether round or long, are very hard and firm, exhibiting when broken a dull, waxy, resinous surface, of an orange or orange-brown hue, more or less brilliant. They have a peculiar aromatic odour and taste.

Several varieties of turmeric distinguished by the names of the countries or districts in which they are produced, are found in the English market: but although they present differences which are sufficiently appreciable to the eye of the experienced dealer, the characters of each sort are scarcely so marked or so constant as to be recognizable by mere verbal description. The principal sorts now in commerce are known as _China_, _Madras_, _Bengal_, _Java_, and _Cochin_. Of these the first-named is the most esteemed, but it is seldom to be met with in the European market.[2370]

_Madras Turmeric_ is a fine sort in large, bold pieces. Sometimes packages of it contain exclusively round rhizomes, while others are made up entirely of the long or lateral.

_Bengal Turmeric_ differs from the other varieties chiefly in its deeper tint, and hence is the sort preferred for dyeing purposes.

_Java Turmeric_ presents no very distinctive features; it is dusted with its own powder, and does not show when broken a very brilliant colour. Judging by the low price at which it is quoted it is not in great esteem. It is the produce of _Curcuma longa_ var. β. _minor_[2371] Hassk.

[2369] Hanbury, _Pharm. Journ._ iii. (1862) 206; also _Science Papers_, 254, fig. 11.—It is not wholly devoid of yellow colouring matter.

[2370] A good deal is exported from Takow in Formosa, but mostly to Chinese ports.—_Returns of Trade at the Treaty Ports of China for 1872._ p. 106.

[2371] From information communicated by Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical Garden, Buitenzorg, Java.

=Microscopic Structure=—The suberous coat is made up of 8 to 10 rows of tabular cells; the parenchyme of the middle cortical layer of large roundish polyhedral cells. Towards the centre the transverse section exhibits a coherent ring of fibro-vascular bundles representing a kind of medullary sheath. The parenchyme enclosed by this ring is traversed by scattered bundles of vessels, and in most of its cells contains starch in amorphous, angular, or roundish masses, which are so far disorganized that they no longer exhibit the usual appearance in polarized light, but are nevertheless turned blue by iodine. The starch has been reduced to this condition by scalding.

Resin likewise occurs in separate cells, forming dark yellowish-red particles. The entire tissue is penetrated with yellow colouring matter, and shows numerous drops of essential oil, which in the fresh rhizome is no doubt contained in peculiar cells.

=Chemical Composition=—The drug yielded us (1876) one per cent. of a yellow essential oil, which contains a portion boiling at 250° C., answering to the formula C₁₀H₁₄O; this liquid differs from carvol (p. 306) by being unable to combine with SH₂. The other constituents of curcuma oil boil at temperatures much above 250°; we found the crude oil and its different portions slightly dextrogyrate.

The aqueous extract of the drug tastes bitter, and is precipitated by tannic acid.

The colouring matter, _Curcumin_, C₁₀H₁₁₀O₃, may be obtained to the amount of ⅓ per cent. by depriving first the drug of fat and essential oil. The powder, after that treatment with bisulphide of carbon, is gradually exhausted, according to Daube (1871), with warm petroleum (boiling point 80°-90° C.). On cooling chiefly the last portions of petroleum deposit the crystalline curcumin. Its alcoholic solution is purified by mixing it cautiously with basic acetate of lead, not allowing the liquid to assume a decidedly acid reaction. The red precipitate thus formed is collected, washed with alcohol, immersed in water, and decomposed with sulphuretted hydrogen. From the dried mixture of sulphide of lead and curcumin the latter is lastly removed by boiling alcohol.

By Ivanow-Gajewsky (1873) the best produce of curcumin is stated to be obtained by washing an ethereal extract of turmeric with weak ammonia, dissolving the residue in boiling concentrated ammonia, and passing into the solution carbonic acid, by which the curcumin is precipitated in flakes.

After due recrystallization from alcohol curcumin forms yellow crystals, having an odour of vanilla, and exhibiting a fine blue in reflected light. They melt at 165° C. Curcumin is scarcely soluble, even in boiling water, but dissolves readily on addition of an alkali either caustic or carbonate. On acidulating these solutions, a yellow powder of curcumin is precipitated. Curcumin is not abundantly dissolved by ether, very sparingly by benzol or bisulphide of carbon. It is not volatile; heated with zinc dust it yields an oil boiling at 290°; fused with caustic potash, curcumin affords protocatechuic acid (page 243).

Paper tinged with an alcoholic solution of curcumin displays on addition of an alkali a brownish-red coloration, becoming violet on drying. Boracic acid produces an orange tint, turning blue by addition of an alkaline solution.[2372] This behaviour of (impure) curcumin was pointed out by Vogel as early as 1815, and has since that time been utilized as a chemical test.

[2372] The following is a striking experiment, showing some of these changes of colour:—Place a little crushed turmeric or the powder on blotting paper, and moisten it repeatedly with chloroform, allowing the latter to evaporate. There will thus be formed on the paper a yellow stain, which on addition of a slightly acidulated solution of borax and drying assumes a purple hue. If the paper is now sprinkled with dilute ammonia it will acquire a transient blue. This reaction enables one to recognize the presence of turmeric in powdered rhubarb or mustard.

Borax added to an alcoholic solution of curcumin gives rise to a crystallizable substance, which Ivanow-Gajewsky (1870) isolated by heating an alcoholic extract of turmeric with boracic and sulphuric acids. It forms a purple crystalline powder with a metallic green lustre, insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol. Its solution is coloured dark blue by an alkali.

According to the same chemist there also exists in curcuma an alkaloid in very small quantity. Kachler (1870) found in the aqueous decoction an abundance of _bioxalate of potassium_.

=Commerce=—In the year 1869 there were imported into the United Kingdom 64,280 cwt. of turmeric; in 1870, 44,900 cwt.,—a very large proportion being furnished by Bengal and Pegu. The export from Calcutta[2373] in the year 1870-71 was 59,352 cwt.

Bombay exported in the year 1871-72, 29,780 cwt., of which the greater portion was shipped to Sind and the Persian Gulf, and only 910 cwt. to Europe.[2374]

=Uses=—Turmeric is employed as a condiment in the shape of curry powder, and as such is often sold by druggists; but as a medicine it is obsolete. It is largely consumed in dyeing.

=Substitute=—_Cochin Turmeric_ is the produce of some other species of _Curcuma_ than _C. longa_. It consists exclusively of a bulb-shaped rhizome of large dimensions, cut transversely or longitudinally into slices or segments. The cortical part is dull brown; the inner substance is horny and of a deep orange-brown, or when in thin shavings of a brilliant yellow. Mr. A. Forbes Sealy of Cochin has been good enough to send us (1873) living rhizomes of this _Curcuma_, which he states is mostly grown at Alwaye, north-east of Cochin, and is never used in the country as _turmeric_, though its starchy tubers are employed for making arrowroot. The rhizomes sent are thick, short, conical, and of enormous size, some attaining as much as 2½ inches in diameter. Internally they are of a bright orange-yellow.

The beautiful figures of Roscoe[2375] show several species of Curcuma and Zingiber provided with yellow tubers or rhizomes, all probably containing curcumin.

[2373] Returns quoted at p. 571, note 2.

[2374] _Statement of the Trade and Navigation of Bombay for_ 1871-72, pt. ii. 95.

[2375] _Monandrous Plants of the order Scitamineæ_, Liverpool, 1828, especially _Zingiber Cossumunar_.

RHIZOMA GALANGÆ.

_Radix Galangæ[2376] minoris_; _Galangal_; F. _Racine de Galanga_; G. _Galgant_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Alpinia officinarum_ Hance,[2377] a flag-like plant, with stems about 4 feet high, clothed with narrow lanceolate leaves, and terminating in short and simple racemes of elegant white flowers, shaded and veined with dull red. It grows cultivated in the island of Hainan in the south of China, and, as is supposed, in some of the southern provinces of the Chinese Empire.

[2376] _Galanga_ appears to be derived from the Arabic name _Khulanjan_, which in turn comes from the Chinese _Kau-liang Kiang_, signifying, as Dr. F. Porter Smith has informed us, _Kau-liang ginger_. Kau-liang is the ancient name of a district in the province of Kwangtung.

[2377] _Journ. of Linnean Society_, Botany, xiii. (1871) 1; also Trimen’s _Journ. of Bot._, ii. (1873) 175; Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 31 (1878).—Dr. Thwaites of Ceylon, who has the plant in cultivation, has been good enough to send us a fine coloured drawing of it in flower.

=History=—The earliest reference to galangal we have met with occurs in the writings of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdádbah[2378] about A.D. 869-885, who in enumerating the productions of a country called Sila, names galangal together with musk, aloes, camphor, silk, and cassia. Edrisi,[2379] three hundred years later, is more explicit, for he mentions it with many other productions of the far East, as brought from India and China to Aden, then a great emporium of the trade of Asia with Egypt and Europe. The physician Alkindi,[2380] who lived at Bassora and Bagdad in the second half of the 9th century, and somewhat later Rhazes and Avicenna, notice galangal, the use of which was introduced into Europe[2381] through the medical system promulgated by them and other writers of the same school. As to Great Britain, galingal, as it was frequently spelt, also occurs in the Welsh “Meddygon Myddfai” (see Appendix).

Many notices exist showing that galangal was imported with pepper, ginger, cloves, nutmegs, cardamoms and zedoary; and that during the middle ages it was used in common with these substances as a culinary spice, which it is still held to be in certain parts of Europe.[2382] The plant affording the drug was unknown until the year 1870, when a description of it was communicated to the Linnean Society of London by Dr. H. F. Hance, from specimens collected by Mr. E. C. Taintor, near Hoihow in the north of Hainan.

[2378] Work quoted in the Appendix—tome v. 294.

[2379] _Géographie_, i. (1836) 51.

[2380] _De Rerum gradibus_, Argentorati, 1531. 162.

[2381] Macer Floridus (see p. 627), cap. 70, was already acquainted with it.

[2382] Hanbury, _Historical Notes on the Radix Galangæ of pharmacy—Journ. of Linnean Society_, Bot. xiii. (1871) 20; _Pharm. Journ._ Sept. 23, 1871. 248; _Science Papers_, 370.

=Description=—The drug consists of a cylindrical rhizome, having a maximum diameter of about ¾ of an inch, but for the most part considerably smaller. This rhizome has been cut while fresh into short pieces, 1½ to 3 inches in length, which are often branched, and are marked transversely at short intervals by narrow raised sinuous rings, indicating the former attachment of leaves or scales. The pieces are hard, tough and shrivelled, externally of a dark reddish-brown, displaying when cut transversely an internal substance of rather paler hue (but never white), with a darker central column. The drug exhales when comminuted an agreeable aroma, and has a strongly pungent, spicy taste.

=Microscopic Structure=—The central portion of the rhizome is separated from the outer tissue by the nucleus-sheath, which appears as a well-defined darker line. Yet the central tissue does not differ much from that surrounding it, both being composed of uniform parenchyme cells, traversed by scattered vascular bundles. There also occur throughout the whole tissue isolated cells loaded with essential oil or resin. But the larger number of cells abound in large starch granules of an unusual club-shaped form. Some cells contain a brown substance, differing from resin in being insoluble in alcohol. The corky layer is remarkable from its cells having undulated walls.

=Chemical Composition=—The odour of galangal is due to an essential oil, which the rhizoma yields to the extent of only 0·7 per cent., and which we found to be very slightly deviating the plane of polarization to the left.

Brandes[2383] extracted from Galangal, by means of ether, an inodorous, tasteless, crystalline body called _Kämpferid_, which is worthy of further examination.

The pungent principle of the drug, which is probably analogous to that of ginger, has not been studied.

=Commerce=—Galangal is shipped from Canton to other ports of China, to India and Europe, but there are no general statistics to give an idea of the total production. From official returns quoted by Hance, the export of the year 1869, which seems to have been exceptionally large, amounted to 370,800 lb. From Kiung-chow, island of Hainan, 2,113 peculs (281,733 lb.) were exported in 1877.

=Uses=—The drug is an aromatic stimulant of the nature of ginger, now nearly obsolete in British medicine. It is still a popular remedy and spice in Livonia, Esthonia and central Russia, and by the Tartars is taken with tea. It is also in some requisition in Russia among brewers, and the manufacturers of vinegar and cordials, and finally as a cattle medicine.

=Substitute=—The rhizoma of _Alpina Galanga_ Willd., a plant of Java, constitutes the drug known as _Radix Galangæ majoris_ or _Greater Galangal_, packages of which occasionally appear in the London drug sales. It may be at once distinguished from the Chinese drug by its much larger size and the pale buff hue of its internal substance, the latter in strong contrast with the orange-brown outer skin.

FRUCTUS CARDAMOMI.

_Semina Cardamomi minoris_; _Cardamoms_, _Malabar Cardamoms_; F. _Cardamomes_; G. _Cardamomen_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Elettaria[2384] Cardamomum_ Maton (_Alpinia Cardamomum_ Roxb.), a flag-like perennial plant, 6 to 12 feet high, with large lanceolate leaves on long sheathing stalks, and flowers in lax flexuose horizontal scapes, 6 to 18 inches in length, which are thrown out to the number of 3 or 4, close to the ground. The fruit is ovoid, three-sided, plump and smooth, with a fleshy green pericarp.

The Cardamom plant grows abundantly, both wild and under cultivation, in the moist shady mountain forests of North Canara, Coorg and Wynaad on the Malabar Coast; at an elevation of 2500 to 5000 feet above the sea. It is truly wild in Canara and in the Anamalai, Cochin and Travancore forests.[2385] The cardamom region has a mean temperature of 22° C. (72° F.), and a mean rainfall of 121 inches.

[2383] _Archiv der Pharm._ xix. (1839) 52.

[2384] From _Elettari_, the Mallyalim name of the plant.—Fig. in Bentley and Trimen’s _Med. Plants_, part 24 (1877).

[2385] The small “_Cardamom_“ island in the Laccadive group, west of Malabar, is inhabited by Moplahs, known (as we are informed by Dr. King, Calcutta) in the south of India as dealers in cardamoms.

A well-marked variety, differing chiefly in the elongated form and large size of its fruits, is found wild in the forests of the central and southern provinces of Ceylon. It was formerly regarded as a distinct species under the name of _Elettaria major_, but careful observation of growing specimens has shown that it possesses no characters to warrant it being considered more than a variety of the typical plant, and it is therefore now called _E. Cardamomum_ var. β. It is only known to occur in Ceylon, where the ordinary cardamom of Malabar is not found except as a cultivated plant.[2386]

=History=—Cardamoms, _Elā_, are mentioned in the writings of Susruta, and hence may have been used in India from a remote period. It is not unlikely that in common with ginger and pepper they reached Europe in classical times, although it is not possible from the descriptions that have come down to determine exactly what was the Καρδάμωμον of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, or the Ἄμωμον of the last named writer. The _Amomum_, _Amomis_ and _Cardamomum_ of Pliny are also doubtful, the description he gives of the last being unintelligible as applied to anything now known by that name.

In the list of Indian spices liable to duty at Alexandria, _circa_ A.D. 176-180 (see Appendix, A), _Amomum_ as well as _Cardamomum_ is mentioned. St. Jerome names _Amomum_ together with musk, as perfumes in use among the voluptuous ecclesiastics of the 4th century.[2387]

Cardamoms are named by Edrisi[2388] about A.D. 1154 as a production of Ceylon, and also as an article of trade from China to Aden; and in the same century they are mentioned together with cinnamon and cloves (p. 282) as an import in Palestine by way of Acre, then a trading city of the Levant.[2389]

The first writer who definitely and correctly states the country of the cardamom appears to be the Portuguese navigator Barbosa[2390] (1514), who frequently names it as a production of the Malabar coast. Garcia de Orta[2391] mentions the shipment of the drug to Europe; he also ascertained that the larger sort was produced in Ceylon. The Malabar cardamon plant was figured by Rheede under its indigenous name of _Elettari_.[2392]

[2386] Thwaites, _Enumeratio Plantarum Zeylaniæ_, 1864. 318.

[2387] _S. Hieronymi Opera Omnia_, ed. Migne, ii. (1845) 297, in _Patrologiæ cursus completus_, vol. xxii.

[2388] In the work quoted in the Appendix, i. (1836) 73, 51.—It is questionable whether _Elettaria_ is intended at p. 51.

[2389] A _long_ and _curious article_ on _cardamoms_, by a pharmacist of Cairo, 13th century, named _Abul Mena_, is quoted by Leclerc, _Histoire de la Médecine arabe_, ii. (Paris, 1876) 215.

[2390] _Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar_, Hakluyt Society, 1866. 59. 64, 147. 154. etc.

[2391] In the work quoted at p. 547, note 8.

[2392] _Hortus Malabaricus_, xi. (1692) tab. 4-5.

The essential oil of cardamoms was distilled before 1544 by Valerius Cordus (see p. 526, note 1).

=Cultivation and Production=—Although the cardamom plant grows wild in the forests of Southern India, where it is commonly called _Ilāchi_, its fruits are largely obtained from cultivated plants. The methods of cultivation, which vary in the different districts, may be thus described:—

1. Previous to the commencement of the rains the cultivators ascend the mountain sides, and seek in the shady evergreen forests a spot where some cardamom plants are growing. Here they make small clearings, in which the admission of light occasions the plant to develope in abundance. The cardamom plants attain 2 to 3 feet in height during the following monsoon, after which the ground is again cleared of weeds, protected with a fence, and left to itself for a year. About two years after the first clearing the plants begin to flower, and five months later ripen some fruits, but a full crop is not got till at least a year after. The plants continue productive six or seven years. A garden, 484 square yards in area, four of which may be made in an acre of forest, will give on an average an annual crop of 12½ lbs. of garbled cardamoms.[2393] Ludlow, an Assistant Conservator of Forests, reckons that not more than 28 lbs. can be got from an acre of forest. From what he says, it further appears that the plants which come up on clearings of the Coorg forests are mainly _seedlings_, which make their appearance in the same _quasi_-spontaneous manner as certain plants in the clearings of a wood in Europe. He says they commence to bear in about 3½ years after their first appearance.[2394] The plan of cultivation above described is that pursued in the forests of Travancore, Coorg and Wynaad.

2. On the lower range of the Pulney Hills, near Dindigul, at an elevation of about 5,000 feet above the sea, the cardamom plant is cultivated in the shade. The natives burn down the underwood, and clear away the small trees of the dense moist forests called _sholas_, which are damp all the year round. The cardamoms are then sown, and when a few inches high are planted out, either singly or in twos, under the shade of the large trees. They take five years before they bear fruit: “in October,” remarks our informant,[2395] “I saw the plants in full flower and also in fruit,—the latter not however ripe.”

[2393] _Report on the Administration of Coorg for the year 1872-73_, Bangalore, 1873. 44.

[2394] Elliot, _Experiences of a Planter in the Jungles of Mysore_, Lond. ii. (1871) 201, 209.

[2395] Col. Beddome, Conservator of Forests, Madras. We have likewise to acknowledge information on this head from Dr. Brandia, Inspector-General of Forests in India, and Dr. King, Director of the Botanic Garden, Calcutta.

3. In North Canara and Western Mysore the cardamom is cultivated in the betel-nut plantations. The plants, which are raised from seed, are planted between the palms, from which and from plantains they derive a certain amount of shade. They are said to produce fruit in their third year.

Cardamoms begin to ripen in October, and the gathering continues during dry weather for two or three months. All the fruits on a scape do not become ripe at the same time, yet too generally the whole scape is gathered at once and dried,—to the manifest detriment of the drug. This is done partly to save the fruit from being eaten by snakes, frogs and squirrels, and partly to avoid the capsules splitting, which they do when quite mature. In some plantations however the cardamoms are gathered in a more reasonable fashion. As they are collected the fruits are carried to the houses, laid out for a few days on mats, then stripped from their scapes, and the drying completed by a gentle fire-heat. In Coorg the fruit is stripped from the scape before drying, and the drying is sometimes effected wholly by sun-heat.