328 SPICES 



CHAP. 



sphere, or copious rains for three-fourths of the year, 

 and an exposure admitting but a limited proportion of 

 sunbeams are the circumstances which the natives tell 

 us, and experience proves, are most favourable to its 

 growth, and are the sole requisite for an abundant 

 crop." 



Owen says of the Ceylon cultivation : " Fine, rich, 

 loamy soil is absolutely essential for the successful 

 growth of cardamoms, and this is usually found in the 

 situations most favourable to their growth sheltered 

 moist hollows. The plants will grow on ridges and in 

 inferior soil, but their fruiting powers are but small 

 and their growth stunted. It is, therefore, unadvisable 

 to plant large blocks with them, as a considerable pro- 

 portion of the land cannot fail to be unsuitable. The 

 most successful method is to devote the banks of streams 

 and damp hollows alone to cardamom cultivation, 

 planting the ridges and all exposed or poor land with 

 some hardier product." Very damp spots, waterlogged 

 or periodically flooded, will not suit the plant. Stiff 

 clayey soil is equally unsatisfactory. In such places, 

 though they may grow luxuriantly, they will give but 

 little fruit. 



Climate and Altitude. The plant is strictly a 

 tropical one, but seems never to have been very suc- 

 cessful south of Latitude 7 nor north of Latitude 25. 

 It requires a hot, rainy region, with a rainfall of 100 

 to 121 in. a year, and a mean temperature of 72 Fahr. 

 The Indian varieties are found indigenous at an altitude 

 of between 2,500 ft. and 5,000 ft. The Ceylon variety 

 occurs chiefly in the low country. It has not been 

 successful in the low country of the Malay peninsula, 

 which is farther south, and has a truly equatorial 

 climate, with heavy and continuous rains, and a some- 

 what higher mean temperature. 



At the higher elevations the plants take longer to 

 come into bearing and seem very backward for a year 

 or two, but when they come into bearing fruit freely, 

 says Owen. The robust Mysore variety grows and 



