

NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 251 



Amomum xanthioides is a native of Burmali, where it was iseo 62. 

 discovered by Wallich in 1827. It also occurs in the Laos Amomum 

 country and Cambodia, where its fruits are collected for use. Xanthioides. 

 The plant being but little known, it was with much pleasure that 

 I learned from Sir R H. Schomburgk, by a note under date 

 March 28, 1861, that he had just succeeded, after many 

 endeavours, in procuring living specimens, which he had in 

 cultivation at Bangkok, and from which he hoped to obtain 

 flowers and fruits. The seeds of A. xanthioides deprived of 

 their pericarp, are sometimes sold in the London market as 

 Malabar Cardamoms, for which they are not a bad substitute. 

 To what uses the Chinese apply the husks, which are devoid of 

 aroma, I am unable to say. 



VJp ^ v-y Yang-chun-slia ; Hairy China Cardamom. Pharm. Hairy China 

 Journ., xiv., 354, Fig. 4, 5. 



A small scitamineous fruit supposed to be that of Loureiro's 

 Amomum villosum, a Cochinchinese plant, of which very little is 

 known. It is sometimes sold attached to the stalk, sometimes 

 removed from it. The scape, which, when perfect, is about 

 three inches long and reclinate, bears as many as eight or ten 

 capsules upon its superior extremity. The capsules are from six 

 to ten lines in length. In the dried state they are oval, occasionally 

 nearly spherical, more or less three-sided, bluntly pointed, with 

 a scar at the summit, rounded at the base, and attached by a 

 pedicel one to two lines long. The pericarp is externally dark 

 brown, marked with obscure longitudinal striae and covered with 

 asperities, which, after soaking in water, are seen to be short, 

 thick, fleshy, closely-crowded spines. It has, when bruised, an 

 aromatic and tar-like odour ; the seeds have a similar tar-like 

 odour and taste, not unmixed with the aromatic warmth of the 

 Malabar cardamom ; they are angular, and upon removal of the 

 pericarp, remain united in a three-lobed mass. The scape is 

 densely villous ; the pericarp of the immature fruit is slightly so, 

 but in the mature fruits this character is not observable. 



A plant producing this cardamom grows on the mountains 

 of Pursat in Cambodia. 1 



1 Thorel, Notes Medicates du Voyage d? Exploration du Mekong d de 

 Cochinchinc, Paris, 1870, p. 30. 



