Chapter II: Part 2

There are many kinds of wild or inferior nutmegs, such as: American Jamaica, or calabash nutmeg (M. monodora), of the custard-apple family, bearing a large pulpy fruit containing aromatic seeds. Brazilian nutmeg (cryptocarya moschata) a tree of the laurel family, producing nutmegs of an inferior quality. The nut is longer than the true species and is sold under the name of long nutmeg. California nutmeg, a tree of the pine family, called also stinking nutmeg or stinking yew, from the disagreeable odor of the leaves and wood when bruised and burned, and yielding a fruit resembling true nutmegs. Clove nutmeg, a Madagascar tree of the laurel family, the fruit a pungent kernel resembling the true nutmeg and used as a spice. Peruvian nutmeg, a large tree of the monimiad family, yielding an aromatic fruit. From Borneo a wild, soapy nutmeg and mace (M. fatua) are often palmed off as the true kinds. There is also the Sante Fe nutmeg (Motoba) from Columbia, S. A., and Ackaway nutmeg, a spice grown in Guiana, the fruit of Acrodiclidum camard. Another species, the M. sebefira, is a common tree in the forests of Guiana, north Brazil, and up into Panama. It is utilized principally for the oil extracted from the nuts, obtained by macerating them in water, the oil rising to the surface, and as it cools skimmed off. Ackawi nutmegs, used mainly as a cure for diarrahoea and colic. All these, while resembling somewhat the true nutmegs and sometimes foisted on dealers, are of very little real value.

Mace

When the mace, a bright-red membraneous substance, is removed from the nut it is pressed flat between blocks of wood and left to dry until it has acquired the right color. The preparation of mace for the market requires experience rather than technical knowledge. If packed too green it is liable to mold, and is subject to attacks from insects, which render it valueless in commerce. On the other hand, if it becomes too dry it loses its vitality and also crumbles into powder when packed. Packers frequently sprinkle the mace with salt water, which makes it more pliable and at the same time prevents attacks from insects.

We may here state that nutmegs are divided into two varieties: The green, which are long and in which the mace only partially covers the nut; is darker in color and inferior in flavor and aroma; and the Royal, which furnishes the finest and best mace, firm, thick, flexible and oily, and entirely envelopes the nut.

As with the nutmeg, mace is sometimes deprived of its essential oil, and mixed with wild mace or other flavorless matter. Myristica Malabarica, known under the name of Bombay mace, used to adulterate the true powdered mace, is much larger and more cylindrical than the arillus of the true nutmeg and has several flaps united at the apex, forming a conical structure.

=Products=--Candied nutmeg and mace, nutmeg fruits in vinegar or salt, preserved nutmeg fruits, and nutmeg or mace essence made from the essential oil of nutmegs (not mace) and rectified spirits. An essence of mace is also made from 6 oz. mace and 2 pints cologne spirit, macerated for a couple of weeks, expressed and filtered thru paper. “Nutmeg butter”, “butter of nutmeg,” or mace, “concrete oil of nutmeg,” or “expressed oil of mace,” as it is variously called, is obtained by subjecting the nutmeg or mace to a great heat and then squeezing or pressing it in heavy presses. This substance is of a green color of the consistency of tallow and of a pleasant smell. A pound of nutmegs will make 3 ozs. of this oil, but a transparent volatile oil is obtained by distillation. It evaporates rapidly on exposure to air. When cold it becomes somewhat spongy and has a marbled or mottled appearance. It becomes hard with age and is exported in small bricks, 10 in. by 2½ in., wrapped in palm leaves. It is known under several names, as nutmeg butter, balsam of nutmeg, concrete oil or the mace oil of commerce, and as Banda soap, sometimes made from the distilled nutmeg leaves, counterfeited by using a foreign fatty substance as palm oil, nut, wax and animal fat, boiled with powdered nutmeg and flavored with sassafras, which gives it the right color and flavor.

=Uses=--Nutmegs, besides their use as a spice or condiment, are used to relieve sleeplessness when opium fails and chloral is not advisable. For diarrhoea, half a drachm in milk is an effective cure. Butter of mace is used as a liniment and embrocation for rheumatism and is also a favorite medicine for low stages of fever with Hindoo doctors.

For ground nutmeg, all the faulty, broken, moldy, worm-eaten and wild nutmegs are often used.

A little of the history of mace and nutmegs: It has generally been believed that neither the nutmeg or mace were known to the ancients. Nutmegs and mace were imported from India at an early date by the Arabians, and thus passed into western countries. Masudi, who appears to have visited England in 916–920 A. D., pointed out that the nutmeg, like cloves, arcca nut and sandalwood, was a product of the eastern isles of the Indian archipelago. The Arabian geographer, Edrisi, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, mentions both nutmeg and mace as articles of import into Aden. They are also among the articles on which duty was levied at Acre in 1180. About a century later another Arabian author, Kozwim, expressly named the Moluccas as the native country of the spices under notice. One of the earliest references to them in Europe occurs in a poem about 1195, by Petrus D’Ebulo, describing the entry into Rome of the Emperor Henry VI, previous to his coronation in 1191. By the end of the 12th century both nutmeg and mace were found in northern Europe, even in Denmark, as may be inferred from the allusions to them in the writings of Harpestring. In England, mace, though well known, was a very costly article, its value between 1284 and 1377 being about 4s 7d per lb., while the average price of a sheep during the same period was about 1s 5d, and of a cow 9s 5d. It was also dear in France, for in the will of Jeanne d’Evreux, queen of France, in 1372, 6 ozs. of mace were appraised at the rate of 8s 3d per lb. In the middle of the 18th century, the Dutch, with the object of monopolizing the trade in nutmegs, destroyed all the trees in all the Moluccas islands, excepting Banda. Nature did not, however, sympathize with such meanness. The nutmeg pigeon, found in all the Indian islands, did for the world what the Dutch had determined should not be done--carried the nuts, which are their food, into all the surrounding countries, and trees grew again and the world had the benefit. In order to keep up the price, the surplus stock was burned up each year by certain unscrupulous men, as is proposed to do at the present day with the surplus stock of Brazilian coffee. In 1760, they burned at Amsterdam three such immense piles of nutmegs and cloves that one writer says: “Each of which was as big as a church.”

This account of nutmeg would not be complete without “Connecticut Nutmegs.” Some 90 years ago Frederick Accum startled England with his book “Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poison,” and a sort of pure food hysteria passed thru the country similar to that caused by the boric acid investigation here. But he was eclipsed by a person who declared that the makers of wooden shoe-pegs in Connecticut were making oats and nutmegs from the discarded wood of sawmills. He asserted they were not only made, but used as food thruout the country. Thus was Connecticut christened the Nutmeg State, a name which it has retained even unto this day.

PEPPER

White and Black Varieties and Why--How the Plant Is Cultivated and Where--History the Grocer Should Know to Judge Qualities

Pepper is a commodity to be found in every grocery store, but how many grocers know that the pepper plant--Piper nigrum--which produces the white and black pepper of commerce, is a climbing vine-like shrub, found growing wild in the forests of Travanscore and Malabar coast of India? It is extensively cultivated in southwest India, whence it has been introduced into Java, Borneo, the Malay peninsula, Siam, the Philippines and the West Indies.

Pepper in the time of Alexander the Great was considered an extremely choice article and, like gold and precious stones, was for many generations found only on royal tables. During the Middle Ages, it was used as money in payment of tolls, etc., hence the custom of “pepper corn” rentals, i. e., a nominal rental or perpetual lease; and its high price is said to have been one of the causes which led the Portuguese to seek a sea passage to India.

The pepper plant grows naturally to 20 ft. in height, but is cultivated on trellises or poles, about 10 or 12 ft. high and is propagated by cuttings or suckers. It has a soft stem, the leaves are 4 to 6 in. long, tough, glossy, broadly ovate, with 5 to 7 nerves, and grow opposite and alternate to a pendulous spike 5 to 8 in. long, having 20 to 50 white flowers that ripen into a one-seeded fruit with a fleshy exterior. This fleshy berry, covering a soft stone, is about the size of a pea and is at first green, but in ripening turns red, which gradually darkens to a deep chocolate shade. The vine begins to bear when 3 or 4 years old and continues bearing for the next 10 or 15 years. It is in perfection at its eighth year.

There are two crops a year--July and December--which yield 5 to 6 lbs. of dried pepper each for a single vine. When the berries are ripe the stalk is pinched off by hand and placed in an oblong cane basket, slung horizontally behind the plucker by a rope around his waist. The rounded ends of the basket extend a little on either side, so that the basket can be easily filled by either hand of the workman. The berries are rubbed off the spikes by hand and placed on mats or on the bare ground, to dry in the sun, when the weather is fair. In damp or cloudy weather they are placed in shallow, open baskets before a gentle fire. If the berries are left too long on the vines they lose part of their aromatic, pungent hot taste, and if gathered too soon they become broken and dusty in drying. After drying, when they become black and shriveled up, they are cleaned and winnowed. Good black pepper is firm and not too deeply wrinkled, does not easily crumble or break in the hand, it is also heavy and readily sinks in water. The inner seed should be hard, round and smooth and of a grayish-brown color. The outside pericarp should be brownish-black. A yellow tinge betrays over-ripeness and consequent loss of strength. A reprehensible practice among some dealers to hide defective peppers is to artificially blacken them and polish with oil. The usual method of judging quality is by weight, the grades technically being known as heavy, or shot, half-heavy and light peppers or corns. A one-litre measure may be filled with the pepper and the contents weighed, or 100 corns of average size counted and their weight ascertained. The variations of peppers of different qualities, according to their habitat, are given in the following table:

Weight
Variety-- per litre

Singapore 476 grams
Tellicherry 548 ”
Lampong 511 ”
Mangalore 574 ”
Malabar 570 ”
Acheen 407 ”

It is evident that the moisture present in the corns plays an important part in the determination of the weight, and it will be necessary to bring the peppers up to the stated water content by either drying them or placing them in a moist atmosphere, or first weigh them dry and weigh again. A slight variation, however, from the figures given, is unavoidable.

Singapore Pepper--The principal part of this import is the product of Sumatra, Borneo and Siam, collected at Singapore. A considerable quantity, however, is the products of the Straits Settlements themselves. It is of large size and of a fairly uniform quality, but as pepper powder it is not much esteemed, owing to the manner of drying, giving it a smoky flavor that buyers can distinguish Singapore pepper from peppers grown elsewhere.

Tellicherry and Alleppey are much alike in appearance, both being light brown in color. They too, like the Malabar peppers, are sun-dried. Mangalore (India) pepper is heavy, large, of a deep black color, very clean, and of uniform size. When powdered it is of a greenish-black appearance.

The pepper shipped from Penang is called Irang pepper and is grown in Sumatra. From the east end of the same island comes the Lampong pepper, but this lacks uniformity, and is light in color. It is also sun-dried. Long pepper is the fruit spike of Chivaci Roxburgh, a native of Malabar and Chavica officinarum, a native of the India archipelago; they are both climbing plants. The first pods, or catkins, about 1½ in. long, grow nearly straight, and opposite the leaves. They are gathered before they are ripe and dried in the sun, when they become brown or dark green in color and rough to the touch. They lack the pungency of the black variety. The long pepper plant dies at the end of 3 years, and after the fruit is collected the vine dies down to the ground. The fruit grows so close together on the spike that when ripe they become one solid mass. There is also a variety of long pepper called elephant pepper. Long peppers are mostly used for pickles. A medium, called Pippua moola, is made from the roots and stems; it is very stimulating.

Cubeb peppers are the berries of the vine Cubeb officinalis, a product of Java, Borneo and Sumatra, but mostly imported by way of Batavia and Canton. They are of a gray color, about the size of black pepper, somewhat longer, more wrinkled and with a short slender stalk. They have a hot, camphor taste. Another kind is distinguished by a mace-like odor and taste. Cubebs are now mostly used as a medicine.

Ashantee or West African pepper is the dried berry of a pepper plant which grows in tropical Africa. It is smoother and smaller than the black pepper and resembles the Cubeb very closely. In taste it resembles the ordinary black pepper. At one time its importation was forbidden by the king of Portugal, as it threatened to interfere with the commerce of India.

Betel pepper is the berry of Chavica betel, a species of climbing vine largely cultivated in the East Indies, Ceylon, Burma, Siam, etc. It furnishes the leaves which are used along with arecanut and other ingredients to compose the favorite stimulant chewing mixture of the people of India.

White pepper is from the same plant as black pepper, with the difference, that to make white pepper the pepper corns are not picked until fully ripe; they are then soaked in water for 7 or 8 days, or heaped up so that the pulp ferments, then they are rubbed by hand, or on a coarse cloth, if the quantity be small, or trampled under foot if the quantity be large; this operation deprives them of the pulpy skin or husk, and the greenish-white seeds which remain are the white peppers of commerce; then they are re-dried, either in the sun or by artificial heat. White pepper is bleached whiter by a chemical process. If the berries be left on the vines until over-ripe they lose their pulpy husk by natural decay and thus become actually white pepper, altho in reality they are the kernels of black pepper.

Singapore white are berries cultivated in the neighboring islands and the husks are removed at Singapore by hand and friction before the berries are fully dried. Penang white is really grown at Sumatra, but imported into Penang in a dried state. There the berries are soaked in lime and water for several weeks, until the pulp is soft, when it is rubbed off by hand and washing; the berries are then re-dried.

Siam white are berries prepared in the same manner as Singapore white, from berries grown in Siam.

The dried black peppers, as imported, are also decorticated or deprived of their husks by machinery, the result being white pepper, which is sometimes bleached.

The active properties of pepper are an acrid resin, a volatile oil, and a crystallizable, colorless substance called pipertine, or peperic. Why white pepper should be preferred before the black is one of the anomalies of the trade. White pepper has really only about a quarter the strength of black pepper, and is the least economical to use for these reasons: (1) Because of being allowed to ripen it loses much of its pungency. (2) Because it is deprived of the outer skin or husk, which contains much of the constituents which go to make good pepper. (3) Because it contains scarcely a trace of piperin, one of the most active principles of pepper. Pepper rapidly deteriorates under atmospheric influences, and large stocks should not be carried unless provisions are made for storing it in air-tight receptacles, for, unless this precaution is taken, the goods in a few months will have lost their pungency, which is an essential characteristic of good pepper.

Pepper is a stimulant, and used in moderate quantities is an aid to digestion. In India an infusion of it is used to create an appetite and as a cure for gout and palsy. It is also used in cases of cholera-morbus. A liniment is made from the berries for rheumatism, and the root is employed as a tonic stimulant and cordial.

CUMIN, OR CUMMIN SEED

Also Caraway, Coriander, Cardimons, Poppy, Aniseed, Saffron and Turmeric Described.

Cumin, or Cummin Seed

The aromatic fruit or seed of a plant of the genus Umbellefera. It is referred to in Scripture (Matt. xxxiii:23). As salt was a symbol of friendship, “shearers of salt and cummin” meant intimate friends. The seeds are linear and flat on one side and convex or striated on the other. Their odor and properties resemble the caraway, or anise seeds, and they are often called bastard anise. They are used in Germany in bread, in Holland they are frequently put into cheese. Norwegian anchovies in kegs are frequently flavored with them, and they are also used in making curry powder, as a carminative flavoring, and in veterinary medicines, etc.

Caraway Seed

The caraway plant has a branching stem 2 or 3 ft. high, with finely divided leaves and dense umbels of white or pinkish white flowers. The leaves are frequently used to flavor soup and the roots, which taper like a parsnip, and when young are boiled and eaten as a vegetable. The seeds are oblong, pointed at both ends, thickest in the middle, striated on the surface and of a crescent shape, they have an aromatic smell and warm, pungent taste. From the seeds is obtained a volatile oil called oil of caraway, of a pale yellow color which turns dark with age; it is frequently adulterated with oil of cumin. After the oil has been extracted the seeds are called “drawn caraways,” and by way of deception are often mixed with good caraway seeds. They can be told by their shrunken, dark appearance. The color of the English caraway seeds is a deep brown, those of Germany and Holland are larger and of a light blue-brown color, while those from Russia, Poland and Bohemia are small, of a blackish brown color, and mixed with a good deal of dirt. There is a variety of a light brown color, about twice the size of the English caraways, imported from Mogador.

Caraway seeds and oil are used medicinally, as a flavoring by bakers and confectioners, in compounding various liquors, particularly that known as Kummel, and in making Scotch cavie, or caraway, comfits; for this purpose the seeds are coated with sugar and colored red, pink, blue, yellow, etc.

Coriander.

The word “coriander” is derived from the Greek word Koriannon, a bed-bug, referring to the disagreeable smell of the whole plant when fresh, but the ripe and perfectly dried fruit has an agreeable smell and a sweetish, aromatic taste. Its an annual or bi-annual plant, of the genus Umbelliferce, native of South Europe, with a branching stem 1 or 2 ft. high. The lower leaves bipennate, the upper ones being more compounded and divided into very narrow divisions. The fruit is globose, containing round slightly ribbed or ridged seeds, about as large as black pepper, very light, of a yellowish brown or straw color externally; inside the husk of each seed are two closely fitting hemispherical mericarps.

The seeds are used in medicine as a carminative. They cover the taste of senna leaves better than any other substance; are occasionally mixed with curry powder; in domestic economy they are used by confectioners and bakers as flavorings, being often mixed with bread in the north of Europe. A cordial is made from them, and they are used for flavoring spirituous liquors, particularly gin.

Cardamons.

Cardamons consist of the seeds of two species of plants, the Elettaria of Malabar and the Amomon of China, Guinea and other parts of the East Indies. As the seeds of the two species differ in some respects we will describe the Ellettaria kind. The plant, which grows 5 to 10 ft. high, has a reed-like habit and bear long, loose racemes of flowers, succeeded by triangular capsules, of a dirty white color, containing a number of dark brown, angular seeds about the size of mustard seeds. The capsules or fruits, which vary from ½ in. to 2 in. in length, are collected from wild plants and also from plantations, the latter being generally laid out in partially cleared forests in which the wild plants are known to occur. When about 3 years old the plants begin to bear. The capsules do not all ripen at the same time, and the harvest lasts for nearly two months. The capsules are gathered before they are ripe and then cured in the sun, after which the stalks and remains of flowers are carefully removed by means of scissors. They are then graded into “shorts,” “short-longs,” and “long-longs,” according to their length; sometimes they are mixed and classed as lesser or greater cardamons. Cardamon seeds are exported in the capsules in order to prevent adulteration. The seeds have a very delicate aroma and are slightly pungent. They were well known to the ancients, and are used at present in medicine, particularly in veterinary practice, also in flavoring culinary sauces, soups, curries, cordials, pastry, and for imparting a factitious strength to vinegar, beer, wines and spirits, especially gin; their use creates a thirst. The seeds depend for their quality on a pungent essential oil, of which they contain about 3 per cent, called oil of cardamons; they also contain about 10 per cent of a fixed oil. The seeds of the “Amomum” species of cardamons are bright black in color outside, white inside and small and angular in shape; they are slightly aromatic, very hot and pungent.

Cardamons are known as grains of Paradise, Melegueta pepper, Guinea grains and Guinea pepper.

Poppy Seeds

Poppy seeds are not unlike fine gunpowder in general appearance, being very small, dark blue--nearly black in color; they are obtained from the same plant that yields opium (Papavar somnniferium, or white poppy.) The seeds are not narcotic, and have a sweet taste, are oleaginous and nutritious. They are largely used in some parts of Europe in pastry, confectionery and as a substitute for almonds. Under the name of “Maw seeds,” they are sold as food for birds during moulting season. Poppy seed oil is sometimes used as an adulterant in olive oil; it is also used as an illuminant and for painting.

Fennel

Fennel is a tall, stout, aromatic herb of the parsley family, with finely dissected leaves, which are boiled and served with salmon, mackerel, etc., as a seasoning; the flowers are yellow. A species--F. dulce--is cultivated in Italy as celery is with us; and its blanched stems are said to be more tender and delicate than celery, with a slight flavor of fennel. The seeds of another species--F. panmorium--grown in Bengal, have a warmish, very sweet taste and aromatic smell, and are used in making betel, in curries, and also used as a carminative. Fennel seeds resemble aniseeds in appearance and taste, and are often sold for such; they are a little longer and of a light brown color. The Indian seeds are the largest, the Italian and Japanese the smallest. They are used in confectionery, cookery and are sometimes chewed by the people of France and Germany. Fennel water is made from the oil obtained from the seeds.

And he who battled and subdued
A wreath of fennel wore.--Longfellow.

Aniseed

Aniseed is an annual plant of the order of Umbelliferae of the parsley family, a native of Egypt, but also extensively cultivated in Russia, Germany, Malta and Spain. Aniseed is very similar in appearance to the poisonous hemlock seed, for which it has sometimes been mistaken. The seed, which is a little larger than a pin’s head, is of a greyish-green color. They have an aromatic smell, and warm, sweetish taste, and are used in condiments, in cookery and in the preparation of liquors, also in medicine as a stimulative stomachic to relieve flatulence, etc., particularly in infants. The properties of aniseed are due to a nearly colorless or sometimes blue volatile oil. Aniseed oil with water and sugar is much used in Italy as a cooling drink. The leaves of the plant are sometimes used as a seasoning and for garnishing.

Star aniseed, or China aniseed, is the fruit of a small evergreen tree of the order Magnoliacae, somewhat resembling a laurel. It receives its name from the star-like form of the fruit or capsule, which consists of a number (6 to 12) of hard, woody, one-sided follicies or carpels ending in a point, each containing a single brown, shiny seed. Star aniseed is held in high esteem by the Japanese and is planted near their temples, the seeds being burned as incense in the temples and over the graves of relatives. The whole plant is carminative, and is used by the Chinese as a stomachic and as a spice in their cookery. The qualities of the seed and oil closely resemble those of the common aniseed and the oil is exported to Europe for the same purpose--flavoring liquors.

Saffron

Consists of the dried stigmas of the autumn or fall crocus plant (crocus sativus), which should not be confounded with the spring crocus (crocus vernus), to which it is nearly allied. The crocus derives its name from Crogeus--which is from the Greek word Krokus, yellow--the modern Korghy in Cilicune, where it was grown in ancient times. The word “crocodile” is derived from the Greek words Krokos, yellow, and deilos, fearful, on the ancient supposition the animal avoided the place where saffron grows and only sheds real tears when in the vicinity of a crocus field, hence Fuller says: “The crocodile tears are never true, save he is forced where saffron groweth.” The phrase, “crocodile tears,” arose from the idea that the crocodile pretended to cry over the victims it had devoured. Saffron was of great importance ages ago. It is mentioned in the third chapter of Solomon’s Songs; it was in favor among the ancient Greeks as a dye, and with both them and the Romans as a perfume. The streets of Rome were sprinkled with saffron when Nero made his entry into that city. In the middle ages it was employed in cookery and as a drug, and it is on record that as late as the fifteenth century persons were burned alive in Muremburg for adulterating saffron. It was introduced to England in 1339 from Tripoli by a pilgrim who had a stolen bulb in the hollow of his staff. Its main use was to color pastry and confectionery, hence: “I must have saffron to color the warden pies” (Shakespeare’s Winter’s Tale, act 4, scene 1). The town of Saffron Waldron in Essex, derives its name from the fact of its being cultivated in that neighborhood until 1768. The cultivation of the crocus for saffron in England has entirely died out; altho the people of Cornwall at the present day use more saffron than all the rest of Great Britain. It is cultivated in China, Cashmere, Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, Austria, Hungary, Russia, Italy, France, but the chief source of supply is Spain.

A saffron field is not in full bearing until the end of the second year, at the end of the third year it is exhausted, and it is said that the soil is so poisoned that it cannot be used for any other crops for several years. Each acre produces from 600,000 to 700,000 bulbs and each bulb 2 or 3 flowers. About 150,000 flowers are required to produce 2 lbs. of fresh pistils, which when dried are reduced to one-fifth of that weight.

The small yield, the labor required, the care in culture and the difficulty of preserving the product in a good state renders saffron an expensive article--about 80c an ounce. On the seed-bearer of the flower there is a thread-like hook or fork, which at its upper head terminates in three thick, dark, orange-colored nerves or tissues; to save and collect these tissues the flowers are gathered in the fall, just as they are breaking, or a little before; they are plucked early in the morning, and these little masses are then pulled out with a considerable portion--about 1¼ in. of thread-like stem, to which they adhere. They are then dried over little charcoal fires or in the sun. It is this dried stigma, the trifid orange-colored tops of the central organ of the flower, that is the saffron of commerce. The remainder of the flower is useless.

Saffron as it generaly comes to the trade consists of a large number of crooked and mixed-up threads, of an orange-red color; it has a peculiar, sharp, rooty and pungent smell, and a bitter balsam-like taste; that of a whitish yellow or blackish color is old and inferior. The great solubility of saffron prevents its use as a dye for fabrics, its place being taken by aniline dyes. Its coloring power is remarkable, a single grain rubbed to a fine powder with a little sugar will impart a distinct tint of yellow to 10 gals, of water; soaked in spirits or warm water it will yield three-fourths of its weight of a deep orange yellow coloring matter, which is perfectly wholesome, and if kept tightly corked will keep for some time. The chief uses of saffron are for flavoring and coloring confectionery and culinary articles; it is also used as a perfume and is given to birds during the moulting season. Spanish saffron is divided into five grades, according to the district in which it is cultivated. It is generally wrapped in tinfoil and then in white tissue paper and packed in tin boxes or strong cartons.

On account of its high price saffron is often counterfeited or adulterated with the petals of safflowers, African saffron, Meadow or wild saffron, marigold, arnica, etc. It is also loaded with glycerine, glucose, dyed vegetable filamenta, honey, sulphate of soda, barium sulphate, etc., and exhausted saffron is sometimes re-colored with aniline dye. The stigma of genuine saffron immediately expands on being moistened with warm water, and its form is so characteristic that it cannot be mistaken for the flowerets of any of its adulterates.

Cake saffron is generally made from the dried flowers of the safflowers--a thistle-like plant of the aster family--or the florets of the saffron plants made into a paste with gum-water; it is used for dying and making rouge.

Turmeric

Turmeric is an East Indian plant (curcuma longa) of the ginger family, with the same properties as ginger, only not so powerful. It is also grown in Zanzibar, China and the Malayan archipelago. It is a stemless plant with dark green leaves varying from 6 in. to 24 in. long and 3 in. to 6 in. wide, flowers of a dull yellow color and a tuberous root varying in thickness from that of a quill to ½ in. in diameter and often a foot long, with joints or ring-like swellings at short intervals; of, a yellowish to orange color outside and sometimes white and sometimes orange color inside. They are classed as long or round tubes according to their shape. From the root is made a kind of arrowroot much relished by the natives of India to color their faces. In medicine it is used as a cordial or stomachic; as an anti-scorbutic, and for stimulating the digestive organs. In a fresh state it is given to expel intestinal worms and in diarrhoea. It is used in varnishes and ointments and as a dye for silks and woolens, but it is now chiefly employed in making Indian curries or pickles, mustard, compounds, pudding spices, chow-chow pickles. A kind growing in Bengal, called “Mango ginger,” from its resemblance to the mango, is used for the same purpose as ginger.

Turmeric paper is a bibulous paper, yellow from saturation with the extract of turmeric, used as a test for alkalies, by which it is turned brown or red. Turmeric is also made from the roots of the canna, a member of the same family of plants cultivated at Sierra Leone.

Turmeric is adulterated with yellow ocher and carbonate of soda. Turmeric is insoluble in cold water, only partly soluble in boiling water, but is quite soluble in alcohol, forming beautiful yellow crystals.

Nasturtium

The flower buds and fruits of the common garden nasturtium are often used as a spice after being ground and dried; they are also pickled like capers and used on fish, meats, etc. The name is derived from nausa, nose, and tortus, twist, from the effects of its pungent smell or taste.

* * * * * *

Transcriber’s note:

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unpaired quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unpaired.

A Table of Contents was added by the Transcriber.

Page 28: “the races of hands” probably should be “the races or hands”.

Page 32: “musterial” probably should be “material” or “materials”.