CARDAMOM. 121 



aud other countries situated in the south-western parts of 

 Abyssinia. It is not improbable that it is the fruit which Speke 

 saw growing in 1862 at Uganda.* Tlie identity of the plant is, 

 however, doubtful, and, as Muter observes in his " Key to Organic 

 Materia Medica," " the natural history of this class of fruits has 

 always proved a difficulty to pharmacologists " (an observation 

 W'hich could justly be extended to many other plants furnishing 

 useful products). As stated by Pereira, the " Korarima '' is brought 

 to the market of Baso in southern Abyssinia from Tumhe, known 

 among the native merchants as " the country of the Korarima," 

 somewhere about 9*^ X. lat. and 35^ E. long'. It is carried to 

 Massowah, the port of northern Abyssinia on the Eed Sea and 

 exported from thence to India. The capsule is ovate, pointed, 

 flattened on one side, striated, with a broad circular umbilicus or 

 scar at the bottom, around which is an elevated, notched and 

 corrugated margin. Some authors who have mistaken the base of 

 the capsule for its summit, have compared the shape to that of a 

 ficf. The seeds are rather laro;er than Grains of Paradise, roundish, 

 or somewhat angular, abrupt at the base, olive-brow^n, with an 

 aromatic flavour analogous to that of the Malabar cardamom, but 

 totally devoid of the vehemently hot taste of the Grains of Para- 

 dise. 



A. cardamomum, Lin., sp. pi. 2. ed. i. 8, furnishes the 

 " Eound " or " Clustered Cardamom " which is the Cardamomum 

 mimis of Eumphiusf the ci/jlco/jlov of Dioscorides,;|: and the Amomi 

 uva of Pliny. § The plant is a native of Cambodge, Siam, Sumatra 

 and Java. Its fruit is an article of commercial importance in the 

 far East ; the shipments from Bangkok being almost entirely to 

 Singapore and China. The fruit is globular, varying in size from 

 that of a black currant to that of a cherry. It is roundish or 

 roundish-ovate, with three convex rounded sides or lobes, more or 

 less striated longitudinally, yellowish or brownish- white, sometimes 

 with a red tint. The seeds are brown, angular, cuneiform, 

 shrivelled, aromatic and camphoraceous in flavour and odour; 



* Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile, p. 648 (appendix). 



t Amb., V. p. 152, t. 65, f. i. 



X Lib. i. cap. xiv. 



§ Hist. Nat., lib. xii. cap. xxviii. ed. Valp. Pereira Mat. Med., ii. pt. i. 

 p. 243. 



