736 ORD. XLV. Scitaminew. AmMomMuM CARDAMOMUM. 
by the specific character he has given it, and the figures to which 
it is referred to in his Species Plantarum.’ Sonnerat, who first 
discovered the Amomum repens, and on whose authority it is con- 
sidered to afford the seeds officinally known by the name of Car- 
damomum minus, informs us, that this plant abounds so plentifully 
on a certain mountain on the Coast of Malabar, that it is called 
the Mountain of Sorge. from which all India is supplied with 
the seeds. 
The Cardamoms imported into ee have been distinguished 
by the names Cardamomum majus, medium, & minus; the dis- 
tinction depending upon the respective sizes of their seeds; but 
the different species from which the two former are said to have 
been produced, are so imperfectly described, and their botanical 
histories so confused, that we are unabie to give any satisfactory 
information concerning them; and whether the Amomum verum 
of the ancient Greek writers is referable to our Cardamom, seems 
also equally uncertain. 
The seeds of the Cardamomum minus, which are now generally 
preferred for medicinal purposes, are brought to us in their cap- 
sules, or husks, by which they are prescrved ; for they soon lose 
a part of their flavour when freed from this covering. “ Their 
virtue is extracted not only by rectified spirit, but almost com- 
pletely by water also; with this difference, that the watery infusion 
is cloudy or turbid, the spirituous clear and transparent. Scarcely 
any of the aromatic seeds give out so much of their warmth to 
watery menstrua, or abound so much with gummy matter, which 
appears to be the principle by which the aromatic part is made 
dissoluble in water: the infusion is so mucilaginous, even in a 
dilute state, as hardly to pass through a filter.” 
“* In distillation with water, a considerable quantity of essential 
oil separates from the watery fluid, of a pale yellowish colour, in 
smell exactly resembling the Cardamoms, and of a very pungent 
> Elettari. Hort. Malab. vol. it. tab. 5, 
Rumph. Ambota. vol. 2. tab. 65. 
