692
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MED1CA.
Amo'mum macrosper'mum, Smith.— Large-seeded, Guinea Amo'mum■
Zingiber Melegueta, Qcertner. Mabooboo, Afzelius. Banda Cardamom, Th. Martins.
Fig. 128.
This was mistaken by Grertner for Malaguetta pepper. Theis ovate, pointed, somewhat striated, about two inches long, aim 'lines broad, with a corrugated beak. Seeds ovate, or nearly gl»b u ^or somewhat oblong, scarcely larger than grains of paradise, s . n ?°°, ( , l lpolished, greenish-grey, or lead-coloured, with a strong umbihe® ^scar at their base, with a whitish or pale-yellow margin ; fl aVl ’ 4slightly aromatic. A native of Sierra Leone . (Fig. 128 is fr oB *specimen in the Sloanian Collection of the British Museum ).
Amomum
macrospermum.
Amo'mum max'imum, Roxburgh .—The Great-winged Amo'murn •
History. — ThisResearches, xi. p
Roxburgh
M
plant was first described by344). That it yields the Java cardamom^commerce I entertain but little doubt; for the latter agrees prec 1 - vwith the characters assigned by Roxburgh and Blume ( Enum. PI- Jto the fruit of this plant, the seeds of which, the first of these bota» ".says, “ are aromatic, and pass for a sort of cardamom” (FI. Indica , ' a ,p. 44, 1832). Moreover, Amomum maximum, being a native of ®^accounts for its fruit being called in commerce the Java cart ^’!'Lastly, no other plant noticed in the works of Roxburgh and & jpagrees precisely in the characters of its fruit with the cardan' 0111question.
Elettaria cardamomwm medium, Roxburgh, which I at one time ( Lund .vol. xviii. p. 633), with some other botanists, fancied might be the parent P .grees in several respects : the shape and size of its fruit, the inequality ol ltsand the qualities of its seed coats, are the most essential points of disagreemen ' s j je w' 1 *fruit of Amomum aromaticum (Dr. Roxburgh’s drawing of which was kindlyme by Dr. Horsfield) has no resemblance to the Java cardamom. Lastly, eC io)C aexamined the fruits of Amomum grandiflorum, A. Afzelii, and A.dealbatum [ a s P| )g c®*'of the latter in the British Museum is erroneously marked A. maximum], ,n 0 [tb e ^lections of the Linnuean Society and the British Museum , and find that noneare the Java cardamom.
Botany. Gen. Cham. —Vide Amomum Cardamomum.
Sp. Char. — Leaves stalked, lanceolate, villous underneath.oval, even with the earth. Bracts lanceolate. Lip elliptical- ^ jof one semilunar lobe. Capsules round, nine-winged. (R °^wicel 16
The capsule is “ almost globular, size of a gooseberry, thi
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d*®'
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