X 229 ) 



VI. A Botanical Description and Natural History of the Malabar 

 Cardamom. By Mr. David White, Surgeon on the Bombay 

 Establishment. Communicated by the Directors of the Hon. East 

 India Company. With additional Remarks by William George 

 Maton, M.D., V.P.L.S., 4-c. 



Read November 13 and December 6, 180S. 



The plant producing Cardamoms is a singular, if not unique, 

 instance of one of the most valuable articles of modern luxury 

 being almost entirely indebted to the care of nature for its growth 

 and perfection. 



Lofty hills, whose summits are ever clothed with clouds, a 

 moist atmosphere, or copious rains for three-fourths of the year, 

 and an exposure admitting but a limited proportionof the sun-beams, 

 are the circumstances which, the natives tell us, and experience 

 proves, are most favourable to its growth, and are the sole re- 

 quisites for an abundant crop. Simple as the progress is which 

 conducts it through various stages to maturity and a marketable 

 state, the subject claims attention, and derives importance from 

 the general estimation and extended use of the spice, as a grateful 

 and salubrious accessary of diet: its use as such is so universal, 

 that it is now in a manner regarded as a necessary of life by most 

 of the inhabitants of Asia; and its general adoption by the ci- 

 vilized nations of the other quarters of the world is prevented only 

 by its limited importation. The possession of its trade has been 



VOL. X. 2 u always 



