RHIZOMA ZINGIBERIS. 



635 



ZINGIBERACE^. 



RHIZOMA ZINGIBERIS. 



Radix Zingiberis ; Ginger ; F. Gingemhre ; G. Ingioer. 



Botanical Origin 



# 



L.), a reed-like plant, with annual leafy stems, 3 to 4 feet high, and 

 flowers in cone-shaped spikes borne on other stems thrown up frOm 

 the rhizome. It is a native of Asia, in the warmer countries of which 

 it is universally cultivated,^ but not known in a wild state. It has 

 been introduced into most tropical countries, and is now found in the 

 West Indies, South America, Tropical Western Africa, and Queensland 

 in Australia. 



History — Ginger is known in India under the old name ^ of 

 Sringavera, derived possibly from the Greek Ziyyl^epi As a spice 

 it was used among the Greeks and Romans, who appear to have 

 received it by way of the Red Sea, inasmuch as they considered it to 

 be a production of Southern Arabia. 



In the list of imports from the Red Sea into Alexandria, which in 

 the second century of our era were there liable to the Roman fiscal 

 duty {vectigal), Zingiber occurs among other Indian spices.' During the 

 middle ages it is frequently mentioned in similar lists, and evidently 

 constituted an important item in the connnercial relations between 

 Europe and the East. Gino-er thus appears in the tariff of duties le\ded 

 at Acre in Palestine abo'lit A.D. 1173;^ in that of Barcelona' in 

 1221; Marseilles^ in 1228; and Paris" in 1296. The Tarif des Pe'ages, 

 or customs tariff, of the Counts of Provence in the middle of the 13th 

 century, provides for the levying of duty at the towns of Aix, Dignc, 

 } aleusole, Tarascon, Avirrnon, Orgon, Aries, &c., on various commodities 

 imported from the East. These included spices, as pepper, ginger, 

 cloves, zedoary, galangal, cubebs, saffron, canella, cumin, anise ; dye 

 stuffs, such as lac, indigo, Brazil wood, and especially alum from 

 <^astdia and Volcano : and o-roccries, as racalicia (liquorice), sugar 

 anddates.7 . ^ 



. In England ginger must have been tolerably well known even 

 Pnor to the Norman Conquest, for it is frequently named m the Anglo- 

 ^axon leech-books ^* ^'^^'^ n+l^ nmih-irv. as well as m the Welsl^ 



" Physici 



of the 11th century, as , , ,,, . . ,,, 



^..dvai" (see Appendix). During the 13th and 14th 



it was, next to pepper, the commonest of spices, costing on an 



Myd 



average nearly Is. 7d. per lb., or about the price of a sheep. 



Bi!oI^^ ^^^ °^ cultivation ia described by 

 If,!, ^^^"' '^'^^(rney from Madras throuuh 

 £?'■'•' '''^ "• (180-) 469.-Fig. of the 



Pln\ '" Beiitley and Trimen's Medic. 

 ^ fp part 32 (1878). 

 11^ V"?^nt, Commerce and Navinnthn of 

 3 i"'"'"f. ".(1807)095. 



^^o««, a. (1843)176. 



^apuiany, Memorias sohrc la Marina. 



etc. de Barcelona, Madrid, ii. (1779) 3. 



5 Jkltiry et Guindon, IlisL des Acies . . . 

 de la MunicipaliU de Marseille, i. (1841) 



372. 



^ Revue arcMoloijique, ix. (1852) 213. 



7 Collecfion de Carfidaires de France, 

 Paris, viii. (1S57) pp. Ixxiii-xci., Abbaye 

 de St. Victor, Marseilles. 



8 Rogers, Hist, of A<ir!ndlure and Prices 



!n E»'jfand, i. (ISGG) 029. 



