SGITAMINE^. S97 



History, Uses, &C. — Thisplaivt is tlie Yana-liaridra or 

 '* wild tui'raeric" of Sanskrit writers. The Arabian and Persian 

 physicians do not notice it, and probably did not distinguish it 

 from turmeric, Roxburgh and Ainslie wrongly supposed it to 

 be the Jadwar of the Arabians (see Vol. I.; p. 20), It is the 

 turmeric-coloured zedoary of Ainslie, who states that the 

 Mahometans of Southern India suppose it to be a valuable 

 medicine in snake-bite, administered in conjunction with golden 

 orpiment, costus, and ajwain seeds. Guibourt {n.^ p. 214) 

 calls it Zedoairejaiine, and states that the plant which produces 

 it has been well described and figured by Eumphius, and is his 

 Tommon hezaar or Tommon jyrmMm, which has been wx'ongly 

 referred by most writers to the Curcuma Zcdoaria of Hoscoe, 

 (7. Aromatica is identical with the Oassumunar described by 

 Pereira {Mat Med., VoL II., Pt. I-, p. 236), and the "Cochin 

 Turmeric " noticed by Fliickiger and Hanbury (Phar- 

 macographiay p, 580). The properties of this drug are very 

 similar to those of turmeric, but its flavour being strongly 

 camphoraceous is not so agreeable. It is used medicinally by 



ombiiiation with other drugs, as an external 



Hind 



application to bruises, sprains, &c., and is applied to promote 

 the eruption in the exanthematous fevers ; it is seldom used 

 alone, but is combined with astringents when applied to bruises, 

 and with bitters and aromatics to promote eruptions ; it is never 

 used as a condiment in India, but a kind of arrowroot is 

 prepared from the tubers in Travancore. The plant under 

 favourable circumstances produces central tubers as large as a 

 small turnip. One of us has had it under cultivation for some 



oun 



The flowers 



almost disappears when they attain their full size. 



appear in May or June, with the first leaves, just before the 



the rainy season. 



Description. — Central rhizome oblong or conical, often 



more than two inches in diameter, external surface dark -grey, 

 marked with circular rings and giving ofP many thick rootlets ; 

 at the ends of some of them are orange-yellow tubers about the 

 size and shape of an almond in its shell ; lateral rhizomes about 



