CARDAMOM. 113 



and weight is then sought after, the adjacent ground is cleared of 

 grass and weeds and disencumbered of the roots of the brushwood. 

 The tree is then felled, and the earth being shaken and loosened 

 by the shock, sends forth young cardamom plants in about a 

 month's time, they being produced from dormant seeds scattered 

 on the spot or washed thither by rains from adjacent parts. (This 

 curious process of inducing spontaneous germination is of course 

 only effectual with the seeds of certain plants possessing the 

 power of retaining their vitality in the earth for a long period and 

 germinating under favourable climatic change.) 



The shrub continues to grow until after the early rains of the 

 fourth year, in February, when it has reached its utmost height^ 

 which varies from 6 to 9 feet ; four or five tendrils are now seen 

 to spring from its stem near the root, and afterwards the fruit is 

 produced, which is gathered the following November, and requires 

 no other preparation than drying in the sun. The fruit is annually 

 collected in this way until the seventh year, when it is usual to 

 cut the plant down, and from the stump other sprouts arise in 

 the course of the next monsoon, which grow, flourish and are culti- 

 vated as before. 



Although the cardamom plant grows wild in the forests of 

 Southern India, where it is commonly called Kachi, the bulk of 

 the fruits of commerce are supplied from plants more carefully 

 cultivated than above described. The method of cultivation varies 

 with the localitv. In the forests of Travancore, Coorsj and 

 Wynaad, where the plant is known to the natives as Ailum chedy 

 (the Ailum shrub ; the word is a corruption of the Sanskrit name 

 of the plant Ela), the cultivators seek out, before the commence- 

 ment of the rainy season, a suitable locality on the mountain side 

 where the plant grows wild, under the shade of trees which do not 

 shed their leaves. The ground is then to some extent cleared ta 

 allow the plants room for growth, and during the season they will 

 attain a height of from 12 to 24 inches. The ground is then again 

 cleared of weeds and fenced round. The plants will commence to 

 flower in about two years from the time of first clearing the 

 ground, and five months later some of the fruits will have ripened, 

 but the greater part of them require a year to mature. The plants 

 will continue productive for six or seven years. A plantation of 

 484 square yards (or a tenth of an acre) will yield on an average 

 12 J lbs. per year of pods. In an acre of forest land four such 



