Chap. 30.] TIIE COUNTRY OF FRANKINCENSE. 1 23 



in order to make the leaves adhere and form clusters, like 

 those of the grape. 



There is another substance, also, which is known by the 

 name of amomis ; 91 it is not so full of veins as amomum, 

 harder, and not so odoriferous ; from which it would appear, 

 either that it is altogether a different plant, or else that it is 

 amomum gathered in an unripe state. 



CHAP. 29. — CARDAMOMUM. 



Similar to these substances, both in name as well as the 

 shrub which produces it, is the cardamomum, 92 the seeds of 

 which are of an oblong shape. It is gathered in the same 

 manner both in India and Arabia. There are four different 

 kinds of cardamomum. That which is of a very green colour, 

 unctuous, with sharp angles, and very difficult to break, is the 

 most highly esteemed of all. The next best is of a reddish 

 white tint, while that of third-rate quality is shorter and 

 blacker, the worst of all being mottled and friable, and emit- 

 ting but little smell ; which, in its genuine 93 state ought to be 

 very similar to costum. Cardamomum grows also in Media. 

 The price of the best is three denarii per pound. 



CHAP. 30. THE COUNTRY OF FRANKINCENSE. 



Next in affinity to cardamomum would have been cinnamo- 

 mum, 94 and this we should have now proceeded to speak of, were 

 it not more convenient first to make mention of the treasures 

 of Arabia, and the reasons for which that country has received 

 the names of "Happy" and " Blest." The chief productions 

 of Arabia are frankincense and myrrh, which last it bears in 



91 Supposed to have been only the Amomum, in an unripe state, as Pliny 

 himself suggests. 



92 Still known in pharmacy as " cardamum." It is not, however, as 

 Pliny says, found in Arabia, but in India ; from which it probably reached 

 the Greeks and Romans by way of the Red Sea. There are three kinds 

 known in modern commerce, the large, the middle size, and the small. 

 M. Bonastre, " Journal de Pharmacie," May, 1828, is of opinion, that the 

 word cardamomum signifies " amomum in pods," the Egyptian kardh 

 meaning "pod," or "husk." It is, however, more generally supposed, 

 that the Greek word, icapdia, " heart," enters into its composition. 



93 u y erus " seems a preferable reading here to " vero," which has been 

 adopted by Sillig. 



94 See c. 42 of the present Book. 



