98 SOME RARE KINDS OF CARDAMOM. 







less. Professor Guibourt has suggested that this fruit may be the 



Atnmnum produce of the Amomum villosum of Loareiro, an opinion in 

 wn i c h the late Dr. Pereira concurred. Loureiro's description is, 

 however, quite insufficient for determining this from the fruit 

 alone ; and as there is, unfortunately, no specimen of Amomum 

 villosum either in the British Museum or in the Muse'e d'Histoire 

 Naturelle of Paris, in each of which institutions some portion 

 of his herbarium yet exists, and as the species has been recog- 

 nized by no other author, it seems at present hardly possible to 

 decide this point. 1 According to Loureiro, his A. villosum is 



called in Chinese So Xa m'i 2 3 -K a name under 



which I have never received the Hairy China Cardamom. 

 Specimens of this cardamom are preserved in the Sloanian 

 collection in the British Museum. 



Hairy China Cardamom. 

 Fio. 4 Fruit. FIG. 5 Seeds. 



Samples from From my brother, Mr. Thomas Hanbury, I have received some 

 Singapore. verv g ne sam pi es purchased by him at Singapore. I am also 



1 M. Lase"gue has stated in his Musee Botanique de M. B. Dcllessert 

 (p. 348), that the Academy of Lisbon possesses the greater part of Loureiro's 

 herbarium. I regret to find this does not appear to be the case. M. Fran- 

 cisco Antonio Pereira Da Costa of Lisbon has informed me, that, so far as he 

 can ascertain, the herbarium in question never existed at the Academy ; it 

 was supposed to have formerly belonged to the Museu da Ajuda ; but upon 

 the removal of that establishment to the Academy, no trace of it could be 

 discovered. 



2 Now usually spelt Suh-sha-meth. The Chinese characters are taken from 

 the Pun-tsaou, where there is a coarse woodcut of the plant. 



