part i

. (1855) 243-263; Hanbury in _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 352. 416; _Science Papers_, 93-15.

[2403] _Exoticorum Libri_, 377. Yet it already occurs in the _Dispensatorium_ of Valerius Cordus.

[2404] Hill, _Hist. of the Mat. Med._, Lond. (1751) 472.

[2405] Thus 43 bags, imported direct from Bangkok, were offered for sale in London, 26 March, 1857, and bought in at 1_s._ 6_d._ per lb.

[2406] Fig. in Guibourt, _l. c._ 215.

There is a large export from Siam of cardamoms of this and the following sort. The shipments from Bangkok in 1871 amounted to 4,678 peculs (623,733 lbs.), and were all to Singapore and China.[2407] In 1875 we noticed the export from Bangkok of 267 peculs of “true” cardamoms, valued at 45,140 dollars, and 3,267 peculs of “bastard” cardamoms, value 92,865 dollars; the latter no doubt refer to the following kind:[2408]—

_Xanthioid Cardamom_; _Wild or Bastard Cardamom of Siam_—This is afforded by _Amomum xanthioides_ Wallich, a native of Tenasserim and Siam. During the past thirty years the seeds of this plant, deprived of their capsules, have often been imported into the London market, and they are now also common in the bazaars of India.[2409] They closely resemble the seeds of the Malabar cardamom, differing chiefly in flavour and in being rather more finely rugose. Occasionally they are imported still cohering in ovoid, three-lobed masses, as packed in the pericarp. Sometimes they are distinguished as _Bastard_ or _Wild_, but are more generally termed simply _Cardamom Seeds_. They are a considerable article of trade in Siam.

The fruits of this species grow in round clusters and are remarkable for having the pericarp thickly beset with weak fleshy spines,[2410] which gives them some resemblance to the fruits of a _Xanthium_, and has suggested the specific name.

_Bengal Cardamom_—This drug, which with the next two has been hitherto confounded under one name,[2411] is afforded by _Amomum subulatum_ Roxb.,[2412] a native of the Morung mountains, to the S.S.W. of Darjiling, in about 26°·30′ N. lat. The fruit is known by the name of _Winged Bengal Cardamom_, _Morung Elachi_ or _Buro Elachi_. They average about an inch in length, and are of ovoid or slightly obconic form, and obscurely 3-sided; the lower end is rounded and usually devoid of stalk. The upper part of the fruit is provided with 9 narrow jagged wings or ridges, which become apparent after maceration; and the summit terminates in a truncate bristly nipple,—never protracted into a long tube. The pericarp is coarsely striated, and of a deep brown. It easily splits into 3 valves, inclosing a 3-lobed mass of seeds, 60 to 80 in number, agglutinated by a viscid saccharine pulp, due to the aril with which each seed is surrounded. The seeds are of roundish form, rendered angular by mutual pressure, and about ⅛ of an inch long; they have a highly aromatic, camphoraceous taste.

[2407] _Commercial Report of H.M. Consul-General in Siam for 1871._

[2408] _Science Papers_, 102-103.

[2409] Moodeen Sheriff, _Supplement to Pharmacopœia of India_, Madras, 1869. 44. 270.

[2410] See figures in _Pharm. Journ._ xiv. (1855) 418; also _Science Papers_, 1876, p. 101-103.

[2411] As by Pereira, _Elem. of Mat. Med._ ii. (1850) 1135.

[2412] According to Dr. King, in Sir Joseph Hooker’s _Report on the Royal Gardens at Kew_, 1877. 27.

_Nepal Cardamom_—The description of the Bengal cardamom applies in many points to this drug, to which it has a singularly close resemblance. The fruit is of the same size and form, and is also crowned in its upper part with thin jagged ridges, and marked in a similar manner with longitudinal striæ; and lastly, the seeds have the same shape and flavour. But it differs, firstly, in bearing on its summit a tubular calyx, which is as long or longer than the fruit itself; and, secondly, in the fruit being often attached to a short stalk. The fruits are borne on an ovoid scape, 3 to 4 inches long, densely crowded with overlapping bracts, which are remarkably broad and truncate with a sharp central claw,—very distinct from the much narrower ovate bracts of _A. aromaticum_, as shown in Roxburgh’s unpublished drawing of that plant.

The plant, which is unquestionably a species of _Amomum_, has not yet been identified with any published description. We have to thank Colonel Richard C. Lawrence, British Resident at Katmandu, for sending us a fruit-scape in alcohol, some dried leaves, and also the drug itself,—the last agreeing perfectly with specimens obtained through other channels.

The Nepal cardamom, the first account of which is due to Hamilton,[2413] is cultivated on the frontiers of Nepal, near Darjiling. The plant is stated by Col. Lawrence to attain 3 to 6 feet in height, and to be grown on well-watered slopes of the hills, under the shelter of trees. The fruit is exported to other parts of India.

_Java Cardamom_—A well-marked fruit, produced by _Amomum maximum_ Roxb., a plant of Java. The fruits are arranged to the number of 30 to 40 on a short thick scape, and form a globose group, 4 inches in diameter. They are stalked, and of a conical or ovoid form, in the fresh state as much as 1½ inches long by 1 inch broad. Each fruit is provided with 9 to 10 prominent wings, ⅛ of an inch high, running from base to apex, and coarsely toothed except in their lowest part. The summit is crowned by a short, withered, calycinal tube.

Mr. Binnendyk, of the Botanical garden of Buitenzorg, in Java, who has kindly supplied us with fine specimens of _A. maximum_, as well as with an admirable coloured drawing, states that the plant is cultivated, and that its fruits are sold for the sake of their agreeable edible pulp. We do not know whether the dried fruits or the seeds are ever exported. Pereira confounded them with Bengal and Nepal cardamoms.

_Korarima Cardamom_—The Arab Physicians were acquainted with a sort of cardamom called _Heil_, which was later known in Europe, and is mentioned in the most ancient printed pharmacopœias as _Cardamomum majus_,[2414] a name occurring also in Valerius Cordus and Mattiolus. Like some other Eastern drugs, it gradually disappeared from European commerce, and its name came to be transferred to _Grains of Paradise_, which to the present day are known in the shops as _Semina Cardamomi majoris_.

[2413] _Account of the Kingdom of Nepal_, Edin. 1819. 74-75.

[2414] As the _Tesaurus Aromatariorum_, printed at Milan in 1496, in which it is called _Heil_ or _Gardamomum majus_.

The true _Cardamomum majus_ is a conical fruit,[2415] in size and shape not unlike a small fig reversed, containing roundish angular seeds, of an agreeable aromatic flavour, much resembling that of the Malabar cardamom, and quite devoid of the burning taste of grains of paradise. Each fruit is perforated, having been strung on a cord to dry; such strings of cardamoms are sometimes used by the Arabs as rosaries. The fruit in question is called in the Galla language _Korarima_, but it is also known as _Gurági_ spice, and by its Arabic names of _Heil_ and _Habhal-habashi_.[2416] According to Beke,[2417] it is conveyed to the market of Báso (10° N. lat.), in Southern Abyssinia, from Tumhé, a region lying in about 9° N. lat. and 35° E. long.; thence it is carried to Massowah, on the Red Sea, and shipped for India and Arabia. Von Heuglin[2418] speaks of it as brought from the Galla country. It is not improbable that it is the same fruit which Speke[2419] saw growing in 1862 at Uganda, in lat 0°, and which he says is strung like a necklace by the Wagonda people. Under the name of _Heel Habashee_, Korarima cardamoms were contributed in 1873 from Shoa to the Vienna exhibition; we have also been presented, in 1877, with an excellent specimen of them, recently imported, by Messrs. Schimmel & Co., Leipzig.

Pereira proposed for the plant the name of _Amomum Korarima_, but it has never been botanically described. It would appear from the above statements that it must be indigenous to the whole mountainous region of Eastern Africa, from the Victoria Nyanza lake (Uganda) to the countries of Tumhé, Gurague, and Shoa, south and south-eastward of Abyssinia.

GRANA PARADISI.

_Semina Cardamomi majoris_, _Piper Melegueta_; _Grains of Paradise_, _Guinea Grains_, _Melegueta Pepper_; F. _Grains de Paradis_, _Maniguette_; G. _Paradieskörner_.

=Botanical Origin=—_Amomum Melegueta_ Roscoe—an herbaceous, reed-like plant, 3 to 5 feet high, producing on a scape rising scarcely an inch above the ground, a delicate, wax-like, pale purple flower, which is succeeded by a smooth, scarlet, ovoid fruit, 3 to 4 inches in length, rising out of sheathing bracts.[2420]

[2415] Figured in Pereira, _Materia Medica_ ii.