94 SOME RARE KINDS OF CARDAMOM. 



less. f n the hot and humid regions in which Amomum and allied 

 genera chiefly abound. 



Among the pharmacologists to whom we are indebted for re- 



Dr. Pereira. searches on this difficult subject is the late illustrious Dr. 

 Pereira, who, with the energy which so signally marked his 

 character, was enabled to throw much light on the pharmaco- 

 logical history of various species of Amomum occurring on the 

 West Coast of Africa, and affording the different varieties of 

 Grains of Paradise or Melliguetta Pepper. 



Important botanical observations have more recently been 



Dr. Hooker, made by Dr. Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1 who had had the advan- 

 tage of an interesting series of specimens of Amomum collected 

 with much labour by Dr. W. F. Daniell on various parts of the 

 West Coast of Africa. 



Guibourt. Professor Guibourt, of Paris, has contributed many accurate 

 observations on the same subject, and especially some notices 

 and figures of certain species of Cardamom which, although 

 rarely met with in Europe, are important articles of trade in 

 the Eastern Archipelago and in China. 



It is to these latter species, namely, the Cardamoms of Siam, 

 Cochin-China, Tonquin and China, that the present paper refers ; 

 and I must preface it by saying that my object is to place the 

 information we possess in a collected form, and to point out the 

 desirableness of further researches, rather than to communicate 

 much that is new. It is my hope that Europeans residing in 

 the countries in question, who take an interest in natural history, 

 may be stimulated to some exertion to discover the botanical 

 origin, and obtain further accounts regarding the culture, the 

 collection, and the uses of these productions, which, apart from 

 their interest to the pharmacologist, are derived from plants, 

 many of which, remarkable for a splendid inflorescence, would 

 become valuable additions to the horticultural collections of this 

 country. 



1 Hooker's Journal of Botany, vol. iv., p. 129 ; vol. vi., p. 289. 



