98 ODOROGEAPtllA. 



and is in flower. On comparing it with the drawings and 

 specimens in the Herbarium, Mr. Baker has identified it with a 

 specimen labelled " Alpinia sp., Bangkok," which was collected by 

 Sir E. Schomburgk in 1864, and which is very near to Alpinia 

 allughas, also a native of Siam, where, according to Schomburgk, 

 it is cultivated for its cardamomum-like fruits, and is known as 

 Luk-Reu, or bastard cardamom. Under the name of Galangal, 

 A. officinarum, a Chinese species, is cultivated for the sake of its 

 aromatic rhizomes, and this unnamed species now in flower at 

 Kew, is apparently largely cultivated by the Siamese as a 

 substitute for ginger. The rhizome is very thick, slightly flattened 

 and not so freely branched as in common ginger ; it has the 

 pungent aromatic properties of ginger, so far at least as could be 

 told by tasting it." 



Thus, the weight of evidence is in favour of the conclusion that 

 the Siamese and Chinese gingers are identical, and that both are 

 the produce of Alpinia Galanga, Willd. Yet, considering the 

 wide distribution of Zingiher officinale, it is still possible that the 

 true ginger may also be cultivated in some parts of China. In the 

 true plant the inflorescence is borne on a separate short stem 

 without any leaves, the barren stems being about three feet high, 

 and clothed with narrow spear-shaped foliage ; in Alp)i7iia the 

 flowers are borne in panicles on the ends of the stout leaf-stems. 



Dried ginger is called by the dealers " races " or " hands." It is 

 in flattish, jointed, branched, or lobed, palmate pieces, which 

 rarely exceed four inches in length. The Barbadoes, Bengal and 

 African gingers are covered by a dry, shrivelled epidermis 

 commonly called the " coat " ; hence these sorts are usually said 

 to be coated or unscraped ; whereas the Jamaica ginger and some 

 of the sorts brought from Malabar and Bengal, have been deprived 

 of their epidermis, and are therefore called uncoated or scraped. The 

 external colour varies in different sorts from pale or bright yellow 

 to dark or brown : the palest sort is the fine Jamaica ginger, and 

 this realises the highest price. Cochin ginger resembles it, but is 

 of a pale brownish tint externally. The Calicut variety of Bengal 

 ginger is harder and darker than the Cochin. The Barbadoes, 

 Bengal and African are coated gingers. 



Ginger breaks moderately short, but the fractured surface 

 presents numerous projecting pointed fibres imbedded in a mealy 



