of (he Malabar Cardamom. 7 7 233 
Stems. Base tuberous, clubbed, ring’d rim-wise for two or three 
inches; the lower part giving out viviparous shoots, the 
upper part panicles.) Stems erect from the base, and 
slightly elliptical, tapering as the continuous sheaths send off 
the leaves ; when bearing, from six to twelve feet high, and 
from eightand twelve to thirty in number, quite smooth to the 
touch, finely scored to the eye, with varying shades of glossy 
green, pale at the base, which distinguishes this species from 
a congener da tni on. ithe: same sites but with a red or 
vfuscous bases Her 16: uie Ho^ bis y AE o ! 
Ite very long, in EEE, pine; IRRE) at Annan a little 
unequal, supported on long sheaths embracing closely half 
"the stem, elliptico-linear-spear-pointed, from nine inches 
to two feet and a half long, from one to five inches broad, 
upper side:waved- with narrow ridges and broad furrows 
acutely with the middle rib, smooth, dark-green, edges very 
entire, below pale sea-green, and glossy with a silky soft- 
ness, middle rib channelled above, keeled below. Petioles res 
- short, grooved with a small obtuse squamous Proc em- > | 
m 
bracing the stem above the sheath. — ^ PE. 
-Roots fibrous, thinly ramose, and with here and there a fibre | 
much longer and larger thin the rest running obliquely 
into = vun. | 
"There is no individual of. the Amomum: tribe that displays so 
much natural beauty as the Cardamomum. The glistening polish 
‘of its stems, the sea-green glossy surface: of its leaves waving 
with the least'impulse, and the general symmetry of the whole, 
easily distinguish it from its rival neighbours in the woods. It 
outshines them also in the elegance of its flowers: ‘the: vivid 
‚pink, surrounded by the pale white of the. spreading division 
| , of 
