106 SOME RARE KINDS OF CARDAMOM. 



less. Moreover, Roscoe, in enumerating the synonyms of his Alpinia 

 alba, has taken no notice of Loureiro's Amomum. 1 



But Alpinia alba is itself a plant known only by description ; 

 no figure of it is to be found, still less a specimen. I am 

 assured by Sir W. J. Hooker it is noticed in none of the Indian 

 Flora, and that it does not occur in any of the catalogues of 

 plants cultivated in India. 



Ovoid China The Ovoid China Cardamom is a product of Southern China, 

 Cardamom. an( j a | 3un( 5 an t f n the drug shops of Singapore, as well as in 



FIG. 9. Ovoid China Cardamom (entire fruits, fruit deprived of pericarp, and seeds). 



those of China. It is an oval or oblong, three-celled, three- 

 valved and obscurely three-sided fruit, of from 1 to If inches 

 in . length. The pericarp is of a dusky-greyish brown deep 

 striated longitudinally, thick and coriaceous, frequently covered 

 on the surface with a whitish efflorescence; it is but slightly 

 aromatic. The seeds are very large, often upwards of three 

 lines in length, sharply angular and striated, having a powerful 

 and peculiar aromatic smell and taste. 



This Cardamom is remarkable for its large, hard, angular seeds, 



1 Linn. Trans., vol. viiu, p. 346. 



