84 ODOKOGRAPHIA. 



The smooth oval capsule is of a pale straw colour ; three-celled, 

 but without any regular division into valves ; when the seeds are 

 ripe the elasticity of the segments of the arils bursts the vertex 

 into various portions, from whence the seeds are soon expelled. 

 There are several arilled seeds in each cell, varying in shape, but 

 generally oblong. The aril is cut to the very base into several 

 slender, unequal, white, fleshy segments, which are united to the 

 seed round the umbilicus. The perisperm is pure white, hard and 

 friable, occupying the lower half of the seed. The vitellus, forming 

 or occupying the upper half of the seed, is less white and of 

 tougher consistence than the perisperm. The embryo is nearly as 

 long as the seed, tending to clavate, it has both ends truncate, the 

 upper half lodged in the vitellus, and the lower in the albumen or 

 perisperm. This plant is figured in Curtis, Botanical Magazine, 

 t. 2000, and in Jobel und Kunze, pt. ii., t. xxiv., figs. 3, 4. 



Dr. Dymock asserts in his " ISTotes on Indian Drugs,"* that the 

 drug known in the Bombay Market, and supplied from the Madras- 

 Presidency as " Kachoora " (in the Hindi, Bengalee and Bombay 

 dialects) is the produce of common Curcuma aroniatica, " the plant 

 which yields the Bound Zedoary of Guibourt,"f and which is above 

 described as C. Zedoaria Eoxb., but the vernacular name mentioned 

 by Dymock for this drug "Kachoora" is the name quoted by 

 Eoxburgh for the root of C. Zerumhet. Dymock states however 

 that the specimens of the root he examined agree with the 

 description given by Guibourt of the " round " Zedoary. Eef erring 

 to the 7th edition of Guibourt, ii. p. 210, we find the statement that 

 Zerumbet is really the " round " Zedoary, as was formerly averred 

 by Serapion, Pomet, and Lemery. Whichever root it was which 

 Dymock examined, he says it agrees exactly with the following 

 description, but it is often cut into transverse slices instead of 

 into halves and quarters : — " The round Zedoary is greyish-white 

 externally; heavy, compact, grey and often horny internally, having 

 a bitter and strongly camphoraceous taste, like that of the long 

 Zedoary, which it also resemUes in odour'' (The Italics are mine). 

 "The odour of both druses is analogjous with that of ginsrer, but 

 weaker unless the rhizome be powdered, when it develops a 

 powerful aromatic odour similar to that of cardamoms." . . . 



* Pharni. Journ. [3], x. 830. 



t Hist, des Drogues, 6th Ed., ii. 213. 



