252 NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDICA. 



186O-62. This cardamom is said to grow in the province of Kwang- 

 tung, and in the Yang-yun district of Southern China. It 

 appears to be frequently used in medicine by the Chinese, and is, 

 no doubt, a good representative of the Elettaria cardamom 

 official in Europe. 



'*-** OCP ?. 



Bitter-seeded infc ^ "T* Ylh-che-tsze ; Bitter-seeded Cardamom. Pharm. 



Cardamom. J ourn . } x i v ., p. 418, Fig. 8; Pun-tsaou, Fig. 173. 1 



The capsules are mostly oval, some ovate-oblong, and a 

 few nearly spherical, pointed at the extremities, six to ten 

 lines long. The pericarp is of a deep dusky brown, coriaceous, 

 devoid of hairs, beset longitudinally with interrupted ridges 

 usually about eighteen in number ; it has an agreeable aromatic 

 smell and taste. The seeds are obtusely angular and adhere 

 firmly together ; they are distinguished by an aromatic, litter, 

 myrrh-like taste. 



It is not known what plant produces this little fruit. The 

 MS. catalogue of the collection of Chinese drugs at the Eoyal 

 College of Physicians of London, mentions the province of 

 Kwang-tung as its place of growth, and it is also said to grow 

 in the island of Hainan. 



& -fir ~jr Kaou-leang-keang-tsze ; $1 _S ^g Hung- 

 tow-kow ; Fruits of Alpima Galanga, Willd. (Scitaminece) ; Ga- 

 Galnn Car- ^ an g a Cardamom, Pharm. Journ., xiv., Fig. 10, 11. 

 damom. Capsules about half an inch in length, of an oblong form, 

 somewhat constricted in the middle, or occasionally pear-shaped ; 

 some are obscurely three-sided. Each fruit is prominently 

 crowned with the remains of the calyx ; in a few, the lower ex- 

 tremity is still attached to a slender pedicel. Most of the cap- 

 sules are much shrivelled on the outside, apparently from having 

 been gathered while immature ; a few, however, retain a plump 

 and smooth appearance. The pericarp varies externally in 

 colour according to its maturity, from a pale to a deep reddish- 

 brown ; internally it is whitish. It is glabrous ; in the mature 



1 Eeceived from E. Swinhoe a specimen of this drug, which he says is 

 from Hainan, where the aborigines use it as tea. He adds that there is 

 " good reason " to believe it to be the fruit of the alpinia which affords the 

 Galangal Hoot o r commerce, 15, vij., 70 



