CARDAMOMS 357 



OTHER CARDAMOMS 



Nepal Cardamom (Amomum subulatum). This 

 plant is pretty extensively cultivated by the in- 

 habitants of Eastern Nepal. It is essentially a swamp 

 plant, and comes in usefully as a crop for irregular 

 patches of ground by the sides of streams which are 

 unsuitable for rice, than which it is more profitable 

 (Dr. King, Journal Linnean Society, xvii.). 



The plants are cultivated in much the same way as 

 the true cardamoms. According to N. G. Mukerji 

 (Handbook of Indian Agriculture), it is grown in the 

 lower valleys of Bhotan and Sikkim, where the beds 

 are made alongside mountain streams, whence water is 

 taken along narrow channels, alongside of which the 

 cardamoms are grown on ridges. This arrangement 

 secures constant moisture and freedom from water- 

 logging. The plant is known as Bara-dachi, or the 

 greater cardamom, or Kala-dachi, the black cardamom. 



The plant attains a height of 3 to 6 ft., and the 

 flowers are produced in a dense short spike close to the 

 ground. In fruit this spike is ovoid, 3 to 4 in. long, 

 densely crowded with bracts. The fruit is about 1 in. 

 in length, ovoid, three-cornered, and marked with thin 

 jagged ridges, and coarsely striped. , The fruit splits 

 readily into three valves, and encloses a mass of about 

 60 to 80 seeds embedded in a pulp. The seeds are 

 highly aromatic, and used by natives chiefly. 



There is practically, it appears, no European com- 

 merce in these cardamoms, but they are in some demand 

 in India. 



Round Cardamoms (Amomum Cardamomum, L.) 

 is a native of Cambodia and Siam. It has stems about 

 4 ft. tall, with a short cluster of pink and white flowers 

 at the base. The fruit is produced in small compact 

 bunches, and is globular (whence the name round 

 cardamoms) ; fzi to T 7 <y in. through, longitudinally 

 furrowed; the capsule is thin, fragile, buff -coloured 

 when dry, and somewhat hairy. The seeds resemble 



