THE (xLOGKAPHl OF PLANTS. 



Ginger and turmeric are the chief economical 

 products of the tribe ; the latter is used in 

 dyeing, affording a beautiful yellow. It is the 

 root-stock, or rhizome, of Curcuma longa, a 

 native of eastern Asia. Ginger is the same 

 part of the plant of Zingiber officinal*, a native 

 of the south-east of Asia and the adjoining 

 islands, but early transplanted to America and 

 the West Indies, where it has been cultivated 

 with great success. Most of what is now used 

 is imported from Jamaica, Bengal, the Malabar 

 coast, and Africa ; the first is, however, the 

 best. Galangale, zedoary, and cardamoms, are 

 also the produce of plants of this order. 



In the Archipelago of Asia, which lies 

 almost entirely in this zone, jungle and pesti- 

 lential woods entirely cover the smaller islands, 

 and the plains of the larger ; the coasts are 

 lined by forests of mangroves, bamboos, and 

 trees overgrown by myriads of orchideaceous 

 parasites ; here, too, abounds the tree yielding 

 gutta percha, (Isonandra gutta,) which has 

 recently become an important article in com- 

 mera-5, being capable of application to so 

 many purposes of utility and elegance. The 

 forest trees of these islands are almost un- 

 known ; the greater part are quite* peculiar to 

 them. The naturalist, Rumphius, had a cabinet 

 inlaid with four hundred kinds of wood, the 

 produce of Amboyna and the Molucca Islands. 

 Sumatra, Java, and tjie adjacent islands, pro- 

 duce a tree, (Dryobalanops camphora^) in whose 

 stems solid lumps of a remarkable kind of 



