TURMERIC 439 



April 1910, at 25 cents U.S.Cy. per Ib. The root has 

 a musky odour, which is not appreciated as an adjunct 

 to curries. As, however, the plant is commonly grown 

 with turmeric, I include it here. 



GALANGAL 



There are two spice plants known as galangal, the 

 lesser and the greater galangal. Both are species of 

 the genus Alpinia, viz. Alpinia afficinarum, Hance, 

 and Alpinia Galanga, L. The former is the lesser 

 galangal, and is the most important of the two. 



THE LESSER GALANGAL 



Alpinia officinarum, Hance (Scitamineae). This 

 plant, which belongs to the same order as the ginger, is 

 a herb with smooth, cylindrical, reddish brown rhizomes, 

 about -J- or f in. through, covered with large pale 

 sheaths, which leave a scar when fallen. The stems are 

 2 to 4 ft. tall, with numerous narrowly lanceolate 

 acuminate, sheathing leaves, the blade 9 to 14 in. long. 

 The flowers are arranged in a terminal raceme 3 or 4 in. 

 long, of a medium size and white, with narrow petals 

 and an ovate, entire, or bilobed lip, with a crisp or 

 denticulate edge, f in. long, white, with dark-red veins 

 coalescing into a fan-shaped spot near the tip. The 

 fruit is ^ in. long, brown, tomentose. 



The part of this plant which is used is the rhizome, 

 and though the spice has been known for very many 

 centuries, the plant itself was only discovered in 1867. 

 It was first found by Mr. Sampson at Tung-sai, on the 

 peninsula of Lei Chan-fu, at the extreme south of China, 

 opposite to Hoihow in Hainan, but apparently only an 

 escape from cultivation. It was discovered later by 

 Colonel Swinhoe, wild, in Hainan itself. 



History. The earliest reference to this spice is that 

 of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdabah, who wrote a 

 work on the products and tributes of the Khalibs in A.D. 



