694

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

Eletta'ria Cardamo'mum, Maton. —The True or Officinal Car’damom-

Alpinia Cardamomum, Roxb. L. —Renealmia Cardamomum, Ed. —Amomum Cardamomum, D.

Sex. Syst. Monandria, Monogynia.

(Semina, L. D.—' The fruit; Cardamoms, Ed.)

History. —A medicine, called cardamom (KapcSa/nopov), is mention®^by Hippocrates (pp. 265, 572, 603. 651, ed. Fees.), Theophrastus (-»** .Plant, lib. ix. cap. vii.), and Dioscorides (lib. i. cap. 5), the first ‘whom employed it in medicine. But it is now scarcely possible to 1 ®termine what substance they referred to, as their notices of it arc -brief and imperfect, though I believe it to have been one of the fi' 1 ' 1which we call cardamoms. Pliny {Hist. Nat. lib. xii. cap. xxix-Yalp.) speaks of four kinds of cardamoms, but it is almost impossibleascertain with any certainty what species he refers to. i g

Botany. Gen. Chau. —The same as that of Amomum, but theof the corolla filiform, and the anther naked (Blume.) ..w

Sp. Char. — Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent above, s 1 ^,beneath. Spikes lax. Scape elongated, horizontal. Lip indistm®threc-lobed (Blume.) ^

Rhizome with numerous fleshy fibres. Stems perennial, erect, sm°°.jointed, enveloped in the spongy sheaths of the leaves ; from six to 11 ^feet high. Leaves subsessile on their sheaths, entire ; length from 0to two feet. Sheaths slightly villous, with a roundish ligula ris 1 ^above the mouth. Scapes several (three or four) from the base otstems, flexuose, jointed, branched, one to two feet long. Branches ^racemes alternate, one from each joint of the scape, suberect, t" 0 i?)three inches long. Bracts solitary, oblong, smooth, membranaceo^striated, sheathing, one at each joint of the scape. Flowers a-ltci* 1 ^, ^short-stalked, solitary at each joint of the racemes, opening in succes-as the racemes lengthen. Calyx funnel-shaped, tliree-toothed atmouth, about three-quarters of an inch long, finely striated, pennaw ^Tube of corolla slender, as long as the calyx; limb double, exter] 0 ^.three, oblong, concave, nearly equal, pale greenish white divis* 0 ^inner lip obovate, much larger than the exterior divisions, s0111< f' e fKcurled at the margin, with the apex slightly three-lobed, marked ch ^in the centre, with purple violet stripes. Filament short erect: an ' c \-double emarginate. Ovary oval, smooth : style slender: stigma f lU *shaped. Capsule oval, somewhat three-sided, size of a small n»

[ ! ], three-celled, three-valved. Seeds many, angular. (Roxburgh’) fl .Production. —Cardamoms are produced naturally or by cult)' a ^ 0 ,i.Between Travancore and Madura they grow without(Hamilton [Buchanan], Journey through Mysore , Canara, and Ma t j, t -vol. ii. p. 336); and also at certain places in the hills which of

lower part of the Ghauts in Cadutinada and other northern distn ^Malayata (Hamilton, op. cit. vol. ii. p. 510). The cardamoms °j i0S ei lWynaad, which are esteemed the best, are cultivated: the spots c ^ 0 rfor the cardamom farms are called Ela-Kandy, and are either l e 'gently-sloping surfaces, on the highest range of the Ghauts alter P ^the first declivity from their base (White, Trans, of Linn.f° r g 'p. 237). “ Before the commencement of the periodical rains, uj

nf r.nrrln.mrim n«r*f*nfl tbo r>nldf>st. nnd most sfiaUj

xca e 'i

the cultivators of the cardamom ascend the coldest and mostof a woody mountain; a tree of uncommon size and weight

is