ALLSPICE AND GINGER 233 



the ripe berries having been scattered there by the birds, while 

 the prostrate trees protect and shade the tender seedlings. At 

 the end of two years the land is thoroughly cleared, and none 

 but the most vigorous plants, which come to maturity in about 

 seven years, are left standing." 



The berries are carefully picked while yet green, since, when 

 suffered to ripen, they lose their pungency. One person on the 

 tree gathers the small branches, and three others, usually women 

 and children, find full employment in picking the berries from 

 them. The produce is then exposed to the sun for about a week, 

 when the berries lose their green hue and become of a reddish 

 brown. When perfectly dry, they are in a fit state for exporta- 

 tion. In favourable seasons, which, however, seldom occur above 

 once in five years, the pimento crop is enormous, a single tree 

 having been known to yield one hundredweight of the dried 

 spice. From its combining the flavour and properties of many 

 of the oriental aromatics, pimento has derived its popular name 

 of allspice, and, from its being cheaper than black pepper, its 

 consumption is very great. 



Though but a lowly root, ginger almost vies in commercial 

 importance with the aromatic rind of the cinnamon-laurel, or 

 the pungent fruit of the nutmeg-myrtle. The plant which 

 produces this valuable condiment belongs to the tropical family 

 of the Scitamineae, or spice lilies, which also reckons among its 

 members the Cardomum and the Curcuma. Its jointed tubers 

 creep and increase under ground, and from each of them springs 

 up an annual stem about two feet and a half high, with narrow and 

 lanceolate leaves. The flowering stalk rises directly from the root, 

 ending in an oblong, scaly spike ; from each of these scales a single 

 white and blue flower is produced. Gringer is imported into this 

 country, under the form of dried roots and as a preserve. We 

 receive it both from the East and West Indies, but that from the 

 latter is much superior in quality to the former. 



