SOME EARE KINDS OF CARDAMOM. 



109 



one in the Herbarium Amboinense > do not represent the 1855 - 

 fruit. 1 



It is from A. Galanga that the Greater or Java Galangal root 

 is derived. It still remains to be ascertained to what plant we 

 owe the Smaller or Chinese Galangal, the ordinary Radix 

 Galangce of European druggists. 2 \_Alpinia officinarum, Hance.] 



According to Loureiro, the seeds of Amomum Galanga are 

 calefacient, alterative, stomachic, sternutatory, beneficial in 

 pituitous colic, diarrhoea, vomiting, and hiccough. The root, he 

 states in the MS. before referred to, appears to be Galangal. 



I have observed a specimen of the Galanga Cardamom in the 

 cabinet of the Royal College of Physicians of London. 



Round or 



cluster 

 Cardamom. 



There is yet another species of Cardamom abundant in the 

 markets of the East, which though now seldom seen in Europe, 

 except in cabinets of Materia Medica, is described by all the 

 older, and by many of the modern, writers on pharmacology. 

 I mean the Round or Cluster Cardamom, the fruit of Amomum 

 Cardamomum. of Linnaeus, a plant occurring in Sumatra and 

 other parts of the Archipelago as well as on the adjacent con- 

 tinent. Of this drug, Mr. Padday has kindly sent me three 

 samples obtained at Bangkok by Mr. Hunter. The finest sample, 

 marked No 1, is the produce of Cambodia, and worth in Siam 

 about 5s. sterling per Ib. Samples No 2 and 3 are from Chanti- Cambodia and 

 bon (Siam), and marked respectively 4s. Qd. and 2s. 3d. per Ib. Chantibon. 

 Mr. Hunter states that this Cardamom grows without cultivation 

 on the lower slopes of the mountains. 



The Round or Cluster Cardamom is in common use in China, 

 whence I have repeatedly received it under various designations, 

 as Hang-lcow, Seaon-kow, Po-tow-Jcow ; for the last name, which 

 is perhaps the same as that quoted by Loureiro, the characters 



are 



Specimens 

 from 



1 Nees v. Esenbeck. Plant. Med., pi. 67, 68. There is also a beautiful 

 coloured drawing, marked Amomum (xcdanga, No. 1302 (unfortunately not 

 representing the fruit), among the unpublished drawings of Dr. Roxburgh, in 

 the possession of the Hon. E. I. Company. 



2 Consult Hanbury's subsequent paper on Galanga, Pharm. Journ. vol. ii. 

 (1871), p. 248. 



