56 MEDICAL BOTANY. 
The Cardamom plant is a native of Malabar, where the fruit is collected for exportation. The fruit is derived 
either from the wild plant or from the cultivated. Between Travancore and Madura, they grow wild, ( Hamiiton.) 
The cardamoms of Wynaad, which are most highly esteemed, are cultivated; they are shorter, whiter, and fuller of 
seed. 
| Cardamoms in capsule, are ovate oblong, obtusely triangular bodies, from three to ten lines long, from three to four 
thick ; the pericarp is thick, coriaceous, wrinkled lon gitudinally, and of a straw colour. The seeds which are crushed 
are angular, rugose, and blackish brown. The odour is fragrant, and the taste warm, and highly aromatic. 
There are three varieties called shorts, short-longs, and long-longs, which are not from different, but from the 
Same plant. 
From Trommsdorff’s analysis, Cardamoms contain volatile oil, fixed oil, a salt of potash, colouring matter, fecula, 
nitrogenous mucilage, fibre. 
The medical value of cardamoms is as a spice, highly stimulating and carminative. They were known to and 
employed by the Greeks. 
PLate XCIX.—Represents the plant in flower and a capsule. 
IRIDACE A. 
LINDLEY. 
EssentTiaL Cuar.—Calyz and corolla adherent or coloured ; their divisions either somewhat adherent or wholly 
Separate, sometimes irregular, the three petals being occasionally very short. Stamens three, inserted at the base of 
the sepals. Filaments distinct or connate. Anthers with an external longitudinal dehiscence, fixed by their base, 
two-celled. Ovary three-celled. Cells many-seeded. Ovules anatropal. Style one. Stigmas three, often petaloid, 
Sometimes two-lipped. Capsule three-celled, three-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence. Seeds spheroidal, angular 
oblong, or winged. Albumen horny, or firmly fleshy. Embryo enclosed in it. (Griffith, in Med. Bot.) 
CROCUS SATIVUS. 
LINN&EUS. 5 
SAFFRON CROCUS. 
Sex. Syst.—Triandria, Monogynia. 
Gen. Cuar.—Perianth funnel-shaped, expanding only in the sunshine, with a very long tube, and a regular six- 
parted limb. Stamens three, inserted into the tube. Anthers sagittate. Style filiform, with three long, narrow- 
plaited stigmas, which are usually dilated and jagged at the apex. Capsule three-celled, many-seeded. Seeds roundish. 
_ Specir. Caar.—Cormus roundish; the integuments consisting of parallel fibres, which are distinct at the upper 
ond. Leaves very narrow, linear, long, flaccid, surrounded at base with long membranous sheaths. Flowers axillary, 
_ with a two-valved membranous spathe, appearing with the leaves, large, purple, striated with a campanulate limb. 
_ Stigmas three, deeply divided, linear, wedge-shaped, deep orange colour, hanging down on one side of the flower, 
fragrant, notched at the points. (Lindley.) ees 
This plant grows in England and upon the continent of Europe; it flowers in the autumn. It is said to have 
come from the East. : 
The flowér is somewhat constructed like the colchicum ; it has a long tube through which the style descends to 
the ovarium, which at the time of flowering is under ground, but, when this has passed by, elevates itself into the air 
as acapsule. The stigmas are gathered for medicinal use, and constitute saffron. 
Saffron is dried in kilns, and formed into cakes, or in loose packages: Cake saffron, and Hay saffron. Each fila- 
ment is an inch to an inch and a half long, thin, brownish-red ; one extremity is expanded (clavate) and notched, 
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