228 



PLANTS AND MAN 



almost world wide in the tropics. Preparation of ginger for com- 

 merce takes two different courses; preserved ginger, a product of 

 southern China, is prepared by repeated boiling of young tender 

 rhizomes in a sugar solution and finally packing in sugar. Dried 

 ginger, a product of the other ginger producing countries, is 

 prepared by sun drying the clean, peeled rhizomes, often fol- 

 lowed by dusting with lime to discourage insect infestation. This 

 is the most common type of ginger, generally reduced to a powder 

 for use. Ginger has both an aromatic odor, due to the presence of 

 a volatile oil, and a pungent taste, due to the presence of a resin 

 compound (see Chapter 23). It is much used in the preparation 



Fig. 162. — Ginger is ob- 

 tained from thick rhizomes 

 or underground stems of the 

 plant. 



Fig. 163. — Cloves are 

 the dried unopened 

 flower buds of a small 

 tropical tree in the Myr- 

 tle Family. 



of pastries, pickles, garnishes for meats, and beverages. It is of 

 some use medicinally as a digestive stimulant. 



Cloves, also one of the oldest of spices, are the dried, un- 

 opened flower buds of a small tropical tree belonging to the 

 Myrtle Family (fi.%. 163). Today most of the world's clove supply 

 is produced on the small islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, off 

 the African coast. The fresh buds are green to reddish colored, 

 but turn to a dark brown upon drying, after they have been 

 picked from the tree by hand. The tree is hard to reproduce and 

 slow to grow, so that clove growing is an uncertain industry. 

 However, the prepared spice, ground or whole, is used in a great 

 variety of ways as a spice for cooking, in perfuming the breath or 

 person, in beverages, and in medicine. Clove oil, obtained by 



