NOTES ON CHINESE MATERIA MEDIC A. 



253 





fruits thin and brittle, not splitting into valves ; in the shrivelled 

 fruits it appears stronger, from its close adherence to the mass of 

 seeds. Upon removal of the pericarp the seeds are seen united 

 in a three-lobed mass, completely invested in a whitish integu- 

 ment, each cell or lobe containing, usually, two seeds, placed one 

 above the other. The seeds are ash-coloured, flattish, and 

 somewhat three-cornered; finely striated externally towards a 

 large conspicuous hilum which faces the wall of the capsule, and 

 which is connected with the axillary placenta by a long, broad 

 funiculus. Each seed is nearly surrounded by a tough aril ; 

 opposite the hilum a scar-like depression is observable. The 

 seeds have a pungent, burning taste, and aroma resembling 

 the Larger Galangal Root ; the pericarp is similarly aromatic 

 and biting. 



Authentic specimens of the fruit of Alpinia Galanga grown 

 in the Calcutta Botanic Garden, and kindly placed at my 

 disposal by Dr. Thomson, are identical with the Chinese drug. 



Jit ^K _ 7i|f Tung-po-tow-kow ; Eound or Cluster Carda- 

 mom. Fruit of Amomum Cardamomum, L. (Scitaminece) ; also 

 called in Chinese Hang-kow, Seaou-kow, &c. 



A well-known fruit, described in all the larger works on 

 Materia Medica, but which in recent times had become rare, 

 its place being supplied by the Malabar cardamom (Elettaria 

 Cardamomum, Maton), the seeds of which are very similar in 

 odour and taste. Since, however, the opening of Siam to 

 European commerce, round cardamoms have been frequently 

 imported into London from Bangkok. 



Note about Tsing-mtih-heang. From the Trade Report for 

 Ningpo for 1868 by Acting Commissioner Bowra, published in the 

 Reports on Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1868. Shanghai 

 Customs' Press, p. 51. Of the medicines exported from Mngpo 



fully one-third is a root known locally as Pa-Mh l ( f T|C ) or 

 to the annual value of about 79,853 taels. (= 26,617). It is 



1 Hance, who has examined the living plant, makes of it a new species 

 which he calls Aristolochia recurvilabra. Vide Trimen's Journ. of ot. 

 March, 1873, p. 72 ; Pharm. Journ., March 15, 1873, p. 725. 



186062. 



A Ipinia 

 Galanga. 



