MALABAE AND MYSORE CARDAMOMS 



The Lesser 

 Cardamom. 



ELETTARIA 



CARDAMOMUM 



Cardamom 



Lesser or Malabar Cardamom, and (b) K. major, the Greater Oblong Cardamom. 

 The authorities mentioned for the second form can hardly be accepted as de- 

 finitely denoting any particular plant, but rather one or other of the many 

 cardamom substitutes. Moreover, the so-called form designated ;.; is 

 spoken of as a native of Java. This subject might not have been here mentioned 

 but for the fact that Schumann (in Engler, Pflanzenr., 1904, iv. (46), 269) 

 describes the Ceylon Elettaria as a distinct species, and cites the above authority 

 (Smith in Bees, I.e.). Hooker (Trimen, Handbook Fl. Ceyl., iv., 261) makes 

 reference to uar. major and gives it the Sinhalese name of ensal, the Malabar 

 plant being rata-ensal. But Thwaites tells us (Enum. PL Zeyl., 1861, 318) 

 that after a careful comparison of growing specimens, he was satisfied that the 

 round and long fruited cardamoms of commerce were not obtained from distinct 

 species. The forms above indicated may therefore be stated thus : 



Malabar Var. a minor. Leaves linear-lanceolate (much smaller and narrower than in /3), 



Cardamom, the under-surface with a more or less complete coating of short white silky 



hairs. Inflorescence arising from the very base of the stems and creeping on 



the surface of the ground around the clumps, bracts shorter than the spikelets, 



acute. Fruits white, sub-globular, angled, somewhat coarsely veined. 



This is the Malabar cardamom of Indian planters, and is admirably figured 

 and described by Bontius, Rheede, Sonnerat, Maton and White, and also by 

 Ludlow. An unpublished plate by Roxburgh shows the creeping inflorescence, 

 bracts shorter than the flowers and fruits elliptic. It is, therefore, typical of 

 this plant. He gives no drawing of the next form. Bontius claims to have been 

 the first person to study in Java the living plant and to distinguish the lessar 

 from the greater cardamom. There are good examples of the present form in 

 the Kew Herbarium from Kanara, the Wynaad and Ceylon the last mentioned 

 being less hairy than the Indian, but said by Trimen to be " the Malabar 

 cardamom of Ceylon planters." The present plant is, however, the lesser 

 cardamom ; the one which follows, being much larger fruited, is very possibly, 

 in consequence, the greater cardamom of the early writers, though as already 

 stated that name has been frequently assigned to the Nepal cardamom 

 (-4Mio<Tfi tcbtttectwm). 



Mysore Var. ft major, Thwaites, I.e. 318 ; Fl. Br. Ind., 251. Leaves oblong lanceolate 



Cardamom, (broader and larger than in minor), usually quite destitute of silky hairs (one 

 The Greater Ceylon sample in Kew is sparsely hairy). Inflorescence at first erect, bracts 

 Cardamom. larger (longer) than the spikelets and obtuse or apiculate. Fruit oblong, 



fusiform, minutely veined, twice the length of that of minor. 



This is the Mysore cardamom of planters, who speak of two forms of it, 



viz. uru (cultivated) and kadu (wild). It is a larger, more robust plant than 



the so-called Malabar. In the Kew Herbarium there are, however, examples 



of it from Malabar, Palghat, Ceylon, Mauritius and the Gold Coast. Thwaites 



Wild and an d Baker say it is indigenous in Ceylon. Bontius observes that it occurs in 



Cultivated the woods of Java, and he figures it as differing from the lesser cardamom by 



having an erect scape, longer pods and more hairy leaves. Some few years ago 



a large cardamom was regularly seen in the European markets and known as 



Ceylon " Ceylon Cardamom." At the present day the Malabar form is grown in Ceylon 



Cardamou. an( j h ag displaced the former plant. Thus a large-sized true cardamom has 



been a well-known plant for many years, and it would almost seem as if it 



had been carried even further afield by cultivation (perhaps because hardier), 



than the smaller and finer spice. This, therefore, very possibly may have to 



be accepted as the Greater Cardamom proper. 



Origin. Origin. Whether both these forms exist as wild plants and whether they 



originated respectively in Malabar and Mysore, as the planters' names would de- 

 note, are points which more careful study in the future can alone determine. It has 

 been suggested that the Malabar is simply a higher state of cultivation than the 

 Mysore and Ceylon. The plants are at all events sufficiently distinct to justify 

 belief that they have been known to the Indian people for many years. It is 

 significant also that the earliest faithful illustrations (such as the admirable plates 

 given by Rheede) denote in every particular the Malabar, not the Mysore plant. 

 So far as can be judged, the Malabar Cardamom, three centuries ago, differed 

 in no respect from that of to-day. But no botanist (if Bontius' somewhat doubtful 

 figure be disregarded) appears to have illustrated and described the Mysore 

 form even down to the present time. These circumstances are opposed to belief 

 in the ancestral stock of the Malabar having been the long-fruited Mysore plant. 

 Not Cultivated. Lastly, Rheede makes no reference to either having been cultivated in Malabar 



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