MEDICINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. -*- 185 



2. Aloe spicata. — Succotrine Aloes. 



About twelve years ago, Dr Fothergill sent this plant 

 to Jamaica, for the Botanic Garden there ; but, by the remo- 

 val of the garden to a distant part of the country, this and 

 several other valuable plants were lost. Had it been pro- 

 pagated, it would have proved a valuable acquisition to the 

 island. The gum may be prepared as above. 



3. Amomum Zinziber. — Ginger. 



There are two sorts of ginger cultivated in Jamaica, viz. 

 the white and the black. 



The roots are perennial and digitated. Every spring they 

 put forth tender shoots, of which are made the finest pre- 

 serves. 



Black ginger has the most numerous and largest roots, and 

 only requires to be scalded and dried. The white ginger 

 must be scalded in water, and the skin scraped off; then care- 

 fully dried. This last bears the best price. 



Ginger is reckoned to impoverish lands greatly. This, 

 with the trouble and fluctuating state of the markets, makes 

 only a few people plant it in the mountains. 



The virtues and uses of ginger are well known. In medi- 

 cine it enters into many compositions, and merits still farther 

 to be employed, as an useful succedaneum to the more costly 

 spices. In Jamaica the common people employ it in baths 

 and fomentations, with good success, in complaints of the vis- 

 cera, in pleurisies, and in obstinate and continued fevers. 



Besides the officinal ginger, there are several other species 

 of ginger growing wild, differing in size, flowers, solidity and 

 pungency of the roots, &c. viz. 



1. Amomum Zerumbet. — Wild Ginger. 



2. Costus arabicus. — Great Wild Ginger. 



8. Alpinia racemosa. — Mountain Wild Ginger. 



