CHAPTER XIII 



GINGER 



THE ginger is a herbaceous perennial plant, belonging 

 to the order Scitamineae, and known as Zingiber 

 officinale, Roscoe. It possesses a white, pungently 

 aromatic rhizome, covered with scale leaves, which emits 

 at intervals leafy stems, usually about 2 ft. tall, and 

 rather slender, and covered with the sheaths of the 

 leaves. The blades of the leaf are lanceolate acuminate, 

 ending in a long point, light green and herbaceous, 

 about 6 in. long and f in. wide. The inflorescence is 

 normally borne on a separate stem rising directly from 

 the rhizome, but occasionally is found terminating a 

 leafy stem. It is in the form of a cylindrical cone of 

 bracts, about 3 in. long, pale green, and borne on a 

 peduncle about 1 ft. tall. From between the bracts 

 appear at intervals, usually one or two at a time, thin, 

 yellowish white flowers, with a black and yellow 

 marbled lip. The stamen projects over the lip, and has 

 an oblong, yellowish white anther, terminated by a long 

 white horn, the connective. The style, which runs up 

 through the anther, is slender and filiform, with a small 

 round stigma. The fruit, which is very rarely produced, 

 is in the form of a thin-walled capsule containing a 

 number of small, black, angled seeds. 



VARIETIES OF GINGER 



There do not seem to be many forms or varieties of 

 the plant, as indeed might be expected on account of its 



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