"404 SCIT AMINES. 



roDcIs de la, grosscur d'une aveliue, sou vent didynies, on off rat 

 Ics restes de deux stij^es foliaces. Ces tubercules oirreut 

 d'ailleu.rs tous les caracteres des precedents, et sontles inatriccs 

 radicis du Curcuma domestica minora Nar-kachura appears 

 to have been once imported into Liverpool under tlie name on 

 Kutchoo. [Pilar. Jour. (II.), Vol. I., p. 1 7.) Aitchison {NotcH on 

 Prod, of IF. Afghanistan and N. E. Persia^ p. 51) remarks: 

 ^' Zcdoavy, J idwur J fkwar J Ixadnir, hachulj is imported in quantity 



from India, most of it to be jDassed on to Turkistan* Tlie long 

 tubers are called nar-kachul^ and the round ones mada-haclad^ 

 as if they were tbe products of tAvo different plants, but I have 

 onlj^ seen them mixed together, and not sold as two distinct 

 roots. The Turkomans employ these roots as a rubefacient, to 

 rub their bodies down 'with after taking a Turkish bath. In 

 this i)art of the country, in lieu of these, the nodes on the roots 

 of Eremostachys lahiosa and another species arc collected and 

 sent on to Turkistan. Curcuma roots are employed a little 

 in native medicine, and as a condiment/^ 



The plant is a native of Bengal, and is cultivated there to 

 supply the Indian market. Nar-kachura is considered to have 

 nearly the same medicinal properties as Kachuru ; it is chiefly 

 used as a cosmetic. The author of the Maldizan describes it 

 as a kind of Zerumbad, (See il/<:/M2*7>/, article '^ Zerumbiid.") 

 Through the kindness of Surgeon-Major Peters we have been 

 sui^plied with living tubers of this Curcuma from Dinapore ; 

 he informs us that it is common in gardens in Bengal, and is 

 used as a domestic remedv in the fresh state much as turmeric 

 is in this part of India. The fresh tubers are of a pale yellow 

 colour, but after boiling and drying we find that they assume 

 the couleurfoncce of the drug found in the shops. 



Description and Microscopic structure. — Th 



minute structure of this tuber hardly differs from that of the 

 zedoary. The starch contained in the cells of the parenchyme 

 has been altered by heat, and appears as a finely granular mass 

 nearly tilluig the cell. The resin cells are about as numerous 

 u^ m the zedoary, but the contcut^ are of a dusky orange 

 colour. The vascular system consists of sculurifutm and spiral 



