(J4G ZmGIBERACE^. 



it to the main depot at Alapalli or Aleppi, a port] in Travancore where 

 his commercial agent resides. The rajah is tenacious of his rights, and 

 inserts a clause in the leases he grants to European coffee-planters, of 

 whom a great many have settled in his territory, requiring that carda- 

 moms shall not be grown. m x^- a . 



The cardamoms at Aleppi are sold by auction, and bouglit chietl) 

 by Moplah merchants for transport to different parts of India, and also, 

 through third parties, to England. All the lower qualities are consumed 

 in India, and the finer alone shipped to Europe. 



In the forests belonging to the British Government cardamoms are 



mostly reckoned among the miscellaneous items of produce ; but in 

 Coorg, the cardamom forests are now^ let a^ a rental of £3,000 per 

 annum under a lease which wull expire in 1878.' 



Dr. Cleghorn, late Conservator of Forests in the Madras Presidency, 

 observes in a letter to one of us, that the rapid extension of cofiee 



Malabar 



indigenous 



his own experience that the cultivation of the cardomom is a branch of 

 industry worth the attention of Europeans, and has given many valuable 

 details for insuring successful results. 



Description— The fruit of the Malabar cardamom as found m 

 commerce is an ovoid or oblong, three-sided, three-valved capsme, 

 containing numerous seeds arranged in three cells. It is rounclec 

 the base, and often retains a small stalk ; towards the apex it is more 

 or less contracted, and terminates in a short beak. The longitudina y- 

 striated, inodorous, tasteless pericarp is of a pale greyish-yellow, or m , 

 or brown when fully ripe, of a thin papery consistence, splitting le^^g 

 wise into three valves. From the middle of the inner side of each van 

 a thin partition projects towards the axis, thereby producing three cei ls 

 each of which encloses 5 to 7 dark brown, aromatic seeds, arranged 

 two rows and attached in the central angle. i 



The seeds, which are about two lines long, are irregularly ^"o"^y 

 transversely rugose, and have a depressed hilum and a deeply channe 

 raphe. Each seed is enclosed in a thin colourless aril. . 



Cardamoms vary in size, shape, colour and flavour : those ^''^'-^^^ 

 shortly ovoid or nearly globular, and ^ to ^\ of an inch in lej^S,*'!' j^, 

 termed in trade language shorts; w^hile those of a more elongateu ' 

 pointed at each end, and ^V to yV of an inch long, are called //^o ^ 

 longs. They are further distinguished by the names of ^^J^ A ... 

 Malabar (or Maiigalore), Aleppi, and Madras. The Malabar ^^^^^^ 



<Zaw (WIS, which are the most esteemed, are of full ^'^^°^^'i ^"^^v t to 

 of both forms, namely shorts and short-longs; they are *^J"*^"°i p_ 

 Europe via Bombay. Those terms Aleppi arc generally shorts,^ t^ 

 beaked and of a peculiar greenish tint ; they are imported ^^'^"^ f f^j-m 

 and sometimes from Aleppi. The Madras arc chiefly of elongated 

 (short-longs) and of a more pallid hue ; they arc shipped at Madras 

 Pondicherry. 



Cardamoms are esteemed in proportion to their plumpn 

 heaviness, and tlie sound and mature condition of the see< 



1 Report quoted at p. 645. note 1. -' Elliot, op. ciL, chap. 12, 



and 

 they 



