CARDAMOMS 327 



groweth in Calicut and Cananor" (places on the coast 

 of Malabar). The greater cardamom he refers to is 

 doubtless the Nepal cardamom. 



Garcia da Orta writes of the two true cardamoms, 

 and says that the long cardamom comes from Ceylon. 



The spice, as imported, was for very many years 

 obtained from wild plants, both in Malabar and Ceylon. 

 The custom was to fell the trees and cut down the 

 brushwood, only a few big trees being left as shade, and 

 the seedlings of the cardamoms were left to spring up. 

 When ripe the fruit was gathered. The ground was 

 cleared of brushwood every year till the plants were 

 exhausted, and then the spot was abandoned and a 

 new clearing made. This system was in use as the 

 only method till 1803 at least, as mentioned by White 

 in his paper on Malabar cardamoms. 



The demand, however, of later years being too large 

 for this method sufficing for the supply, cultivation on 

 a large scale became the rule, and it has since been an 

 important industry in Ceylon and India. 



NAMES 



Most of the Indian names of the spice are derived 

 from the Sanskrit *Eta, such as Elachi (Hindu and 

 Bengali), Yelaki (Kanarese), Eletari (whence the name 

 of the genus Elettaria), Malabar Pala, Bhala (Burmese), 

 Hila (Arabic). The name in Ceylon is Ensal or Enasal. 

 The European languages use variants of the Greek 

 Cardamomon, which as previously stated was originally 

 applied to some totally different plant. 



The Malays use the word Kapulaga. 



CULTIVATION 



Soil. The plant being naturally an inhabitant of 

 the forests, requires a soil rich in humus. White de- 

 scribes its locality in Malabar thus : " Lofty hills whose 

 summits are ever clothed with clouds, a moist atmo- 



