UTRASUM OR RUDRAK BEADS 



ELETTARIA 



CARDAMOM UM 



Cardamom 



itinna, Amhertt Dial., 1893, 46-7.] It is very successfully grown in Ceylon. 



JIM. I lit tempts mado to cultivate it near Calcutta, <m t>i Nil/in , and at Madras, 



with little or no success. Herbert's reference to it in connection with 



J.nr limy i><<rhn|is in.li.-uto an early traffic in the fruit along the western 



lii.lui. ii cin-ntMstanco that might account for its being described by 



. do ()rtn und other early European explorers. [Cf. Tavernier, Travel* 



I. !. Mall), li>7<>. ii., -'H7 ; Boym, Fl. Sin., 1656, O (drawing after Acosta); 



I.T Hiitnilton, New Ace. E. Ind., 1727, ii. 81 ; Crawfurd, Journ. to Ava, 



.illingwood, Rambles, etc., 1868, 271 ; Max and Bertha Ferniiv, 



litirma, 1900, 87.] 



ELvEOCARPUS GANITRUS, Itojrb. ; FL Br. Ind., i., 400 ; 

 (Iambic, Man. Ind. Timbs., 113; TILIACE.B. Utrasum Bead Tree, ru~ 

 drdk, rudrdkya, rudra-challu, rudrdksha. A large tree found throughout 

 various parts of India. 



The hard tubercled nuts are cleaned, polished or even stained, then made 

 into the rosaries and bracelets worn by Brahmins and Sinyasis, and sold at such 

 places as Benares, Allahabad and Hardwar. An effort has recently been made 

 to organise a European trade in buttons and hatpins, etc., made of these nuts. 

 In ;i letter from the Deputy Conservator of Forests, Lakhimpur, Assam, to the 

 Reporter on Economic Products in 1900, the price for a maund of nuts in Di- 

 brugarh was said to be Rs. 10, and Rs. 12-8-0 landed in Calcutta. Cooke (Fl. 

 Prea. Bomb., 1901, 152) remarks that the stones are imported from Singapore, 

 where the tree is abundant. 



E. serratus, Linn. ; Fl. Br. Ind., i., 401 ; jalpai, perinkara, meralu, uttraccham, 

 etc. A rather small tree, occurring on the North-East Himalaya up to 3,000 feet 

 in East Bengal, and in the evergreen forests of North Kanara and the west coast 

 down to Travancore ; also the low country of Ceylon. The fruit is known as " wild 

 oliv<>s," the fleshy outer portion of which is eaten in curries by the Natives, and 

 pickled in oil and salt like olives. 



ELETTARIA CARDAMOMUM, Maton & White, Trans. 

 Linn. Soc., 1808, x., 229-55, tt. 4, 5 ; Fl Br. Ind., vi., 251 ; SCITAMINE^E. 

 This is often designated THE LESSER CARDAMOM or THE MALABAR CARDA- 

 MOM, though it perhaps would be more correct to speak of it as THE TRUE 

 CARDAMOM, the so-called GREATER CARDAMOM of most writers (A mo in inn 

 snlniliitniH, p. 65) being in reality a substitute for the true spice. The 

 Cardamom is in the Indian vernaculars eldchi, ildyechi or choti- (small) 

 eldchi, illdchi, elechi, velloda, eldtiari, eldkai, eldki chettu, vittula, ydlakki, 

 ydaki, panlat, pala, bhdld, ensal, enasal, etc. In Sanskrit it appears to 

 bear the following names upakunchika and eld. Hence eld-tari means 

 the grains or seeds of eld, and eldkai the eld plant or root. 



Habitat. It is a perennial herb, with thick fleshy rhizomes, having erect 

 leafy stems 4 to 8 feet in height, and long much-branched inflorescences 

 which arise near the ground. It is indigenous to West and South India, 

 growing in the rich moist forests of the hilly tracts of Kanara, Mysore, 

 Coorg, Wynaad, Travancore and Madura. It is fairly extensively cultivated, 

 within the regions indicated, at altitudes of from 500 up to 5,000 feet. 

 Although there are no botanical specimens in the Kew Herbarium to sup- 

 port the opinion held by some writers, namely that it is also wild in Burma, 

 there would seem little doubt that it is cultivated in that province, 

 especially in the Bhamo district. 



Varieties and Races. There are apparently two well-marked cultivated 

 plants which it seems must be regarded as deserving of separate recognition as 

 at least varieties. In Rees" Cyclopaedia. (1819, xxxix., suppl.), the subject of 

 in is discussed and divided into two sections (a) E. Caraainointiut, the 



511 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 205. 



Rudnik. 



B* r.-l J-.-iIs. 



Price. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 206. 

 Wild 

 Olives. 



D.E.P., 

 iii., 227-36. 

 Cardamom. 



Distribu- 

 tion. 



Wild and 

 Cultivated. 



Varieties. 



Two Forms. 



