308 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOTANY OF [Scitaminew. 
may be found much higher, as on the Choor mountain, which, like the above, is for 
more than six months covered with snow. The generic character of Roscoea will 
require a little modification to include all these species. 
Many of the Scitaminee have been long famed for aromatic and pungent properties, 
owing to the presence of an essential oil in their leaves, roots, and seeds: but that 
being more diffused and intermixed with other vegetable matter in the first, the two 
latter only have been employed as condiments or stimulant medicines. Ginger, the 
root of Zingiber officinale, is, perhaps, the most celebrated of all, being so named from 
the Latin zingiber, Greek ZiyyiGeu, Arab. zungibeel, Pers. shungveez, which are, no 
doubt, all derived from the Sanscrit sringavera. It is extensively cultivated in 
Bengal, as well as in the Himalayas, at elevations even of 4,000 and 5,000 feet in 
moist situations. The ginger, called ada and udruk, is dug up in October and November ; 
the outer rind, being rubbed off by various processes, the root is dried in the sun, and 
then called sonth. Z. Cassumnar, bun-ada, of a strong camphoraceous smell, yields the 
true Cassumnar of the shops (Roxb.), which is employed as a stimulant stomachic, 
as is the root of Z. Zerumbet. Bullocks sent into the jungles to graze in the rainy 
season in Northern India, have a portion of the roots of Z.capitatum given them. The 
large Galangal or Kholinjan of the Arabs, from Sans. Koolunjana, having a faint — 
aromatic smell, and strong pungent taste, with some bitterness, is yielded by Alpinia 
Galanga. The plant producing the lesser Galangal was not ascertained by Dr. Roxburgh; 
but Alpinia alba and chinensis are much used by the Malays and Chinese; the former 
is called Galanga alba by Keenig, while the latter is described as having an aromatic 
root of a white colour, with an acrid burning flavour. A. sessilis again has a root cor- 
responding with this in many respects. Kempferia Galanga yields a true aromatic 
root, used by the natives, and called chundra moola, but is not the true Galangal. 
The odorous tuberous root of A. nutans is sometimes, according to Dr. Roxburgh, taken 
to England for Galanga Major; the leaves, when bruised, have a strong smell of 
cardamoms, whence the plant is frequently called by the Hindee name elachee, of that 
article ; also poonag chumpa. A fragrant warm aromatic root, used asa stimulant, is 
met with in the bazars of Northern India, under the names of seer; suttee, and kupoor- 
kuchree. This 1 found was imported from the Himalayas, and. produced by a plant 
called stdhuoul, which I afterwards obtained in flower from Mussooree, with the medi- 
cinal root attached, and found to be Hedychium spicatum. This may, ee be the 
sitta ritte, mentioned under the Lesser Galangal, by Sir W. Ainslie. et 
The Turmeric, Terra merita, produced by Curcuma longa, in universal use in Asia, 
both by rich and poor, Mahomedan and Hindoo, is too well known for its uses asa 
condiment and as a yellow die, to require further notice. It is remarkable that in 
Persian works, khaldoonioon tomagha is assigned as its Greek name; in the Tohft-ul- 
Mumineen, the description by Dioscorides of Chelidonium majus, is translated and applied 
to the turmeric. But in the A/wkhzun-ool-Udwieh, a true description is given of this 
substance, but the corrupt altered form of o¢<adovey 10 eye is equally applied. Several 
kinds 
