FOODS, FOOD-STUFFS, AND FOOD-ADJUNCTS. 63 



Mr. Christy has* recommended it for this purpose. It 

 is to be regretted that, during the last few years, the 

 sale of the very deleterious Continental liqueur 

 ABSINTHE, manufactured from Artemisia pontica, L., 

 and Imda Helenium, L., has much increased in our 

 Metropolis. 



(2) Condiments. 



These mostly owe their value, as do the Spices and 

 Fiavourers, to volatile essential oils. Some of these, 

 such as the so-called compound ethers, have been 

 produced synthetically. 



MUSTARD is the flour or ground seed of Brassica 

 nigra, Koch, and, to a less extent, of B. alba, Hook. 

 fiJ. and Thorn. the former cultivated in Lincolnshire 

 and Yorkshire, the latter in Essex and Cambridgeshire. 

 It is adulterated with flour coloured with turmeric. 



Mustard is apparently, however, partly the produce 

 of Brassica juncea, Hook. fil. and Thorn., since no less 

 than 790 tons of its seed were imported from British 

 India into the United Kingdom, as ' Mustard-seed,' in 

 1872. 



TURMERIC, the trade in which is declining, since, 

 though used in curries and to adulterate mustard, it is 

 no longer employed as a dye, is obtained in China, 

 Madras, Bengal, and Java from the rhizomes of 

 Curcuma longa, L., but in Africa from those of a 

 species of Canna cultivated at Sierra Leone. 



PEPPER is the fruit of Piper nigrum, L., a climbing 

 plant, native to the East Indies, but widely cultivated 



* ' New Commercial Plants,' No. 2, p. n, and No. 3, p. 36. 



