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appearance. In some samples we have found large admixtures, varying 

 from twenty to thirty per cent, of rice flour, and in others wheat. There is 

 some danger of confounding the natural pepper starch grains with those 

 of rice, as their shape and size are exceedingly similar ; they differ, 

 however, in their manner of grouping ; the starch grains of pepper 

 readily detach themselves, and are usually seen singly; rice starch grains, 

 on the other hand, are found grouped in masses, which might readily be 

 mistaken for single starch grains of a larger variety. 



Not unfrequently an undue proportion of husk, arising from the 

 admixture of pepper dust, is found in the ground black pepper, and 

 the husk of the linseed has been detected, arising, no doubt, from an 

 addition of linseed meal to the pepper. 



We now pass on to Gingers, of which there are many qualities, 

 varying very much in value. Some of these, when cut, present a hard 

 resinous and black appearance ; others are soft and fibrous, or floury 

 and stringy — these have fallen victims to the ravages of insects that 

 have eaten away all their starchy parts. The finest qualities of young 

 plump rizomes, cut -vvith a fine soft, velvety surface, of a pale lemon 

 colour, and emit an agreeable pungent lemon odour. Jamaica and some 

 other kinds of ginger are decorticated, but others, such as the Barbadoes, 

 are imported with their natural epidermal coat upon them. This coat 

 consists of several layers of transparent angular cells, of a brownish 

 colour, with thick walls, and cohering with great tenacity. Tlie presence 

 of this structure then in powdered ginger, affords a pretty certain indica- 

 tion of the use of an undecorticated and inferior variety of ginger. The 

 body of the rizome is found to consist of cellular tissue, the membrane 

 of which is excessively thin and minutely pitted. The cells are filled 

 with abundance of starch grains, of an ovoid and flattened form, the 

 nucleal depression being placed at the narrow end. These grains are 

 so transparent that this depression is only apparent in a few, and the 

 concentric rings, which are very regular, are but faintly visible. Many 

 of the cells contain, besides the starch grains, a yellow colouring matter, 

 much resembling the coloured particles of turmeric, though somewhat 

 paler. The cellular structure is interspersed with numerous bundles of 

 vascular tissue, containing well developed spiral vessels. The cells 

 immediately beneath the epidermal coat are filled with numerous oil 

 globules, and on this oil depends the aroma of the giuger. 



Powdered giuger is very frequently mixed with other substances, such 

 as rice, wheat, sago, and, in fact, any other kind of cheap, damaged, or 

 otherwise unsaleable farina. 



Tlie finest prepared ginger should consist of the pure farina, sifted 

 from the lightly crushed, unbleached Jamaica root ; but as the public 



