CARDAMOM TREE. 20? 



rat grows abundantly on the Malabar coast: it differs considerably 

 from the Amomum Cardamomum of Linnaeus, as appears by the 

 specific character he has given it, and the figures to which it is refer- 

 red to in his Species Piantarum. Sonnerat, who first discovered 

 the Amomum repens, and on whose authority it is considered to 

 afford the seeds otficinally known by the name of Cardamomum 

 minus, informs ws, that this plant abounds so plentifully on a cer- 

 tain mountain on the coast of Malabar, that it is called the 

 Mountain of Cardamoms, from which all India is supplied with 

 the seeds. 



The Cardamons imported into Europe have been distinguished 

 by the names Cardamomum inajus, medium, and minus ; the dis- 

 tinction depending upon the respective sizes of their seeds ; but the 

 different species from which the two former are said to have been 

 produced, are so imperfectly described, and their botanical historic* 

 so confused, that we are unable to give any satisfactory information 

 concerning them ; and whether the Amomum verum of the ancient 

 Greek writers is referable to our cardamom, seems also equally 

 uncertain. 



The seeds of the cardamomum minus, which are now generally 

 preferred for medicinal purposes, are brought to us in their cap- 

 sules, or husks, by which they are preserved ; for they soon lose a 

 part of their flavour when freed from this covering. <c Their virtue 

 is extracted not only by rectified spirit, but almost completely by 

 water also; with this difference, that the watery infusion is cloudy 

 or turbid, the spirituous clear and transparent. Scarcely any of 

 the aromatic seeds give out so much of their warmth to watery men- 

 strua, or abound so much with gummy matter, which appears to 

 be the principle by which the aromatic part is made dissoluble in 

 water : the infusion is so mucilaginous, even in a dilute state, as 

 hardly to pass through a filter." 



'* In distillation with water a considerable quantity of essential 

 oil separates from the watery fluid, of a pale yellowish colour, in 

 smell exactly resembling the Cardamoms, and of a very pungent 

 taste : the remaining decoction is disagreeably bitterish, and muci- 

 laginous. On inspissating the tincture made of rectified spirit, a 

 part of the flavour of the Cardamoms arises with the spirit; but the 

 greatest part remains behind, concentrated in the extract, which 

 smells moderately of the seeds, and has a pungent aromatic taste, 



