GRANA PARADISI. 653 



English voyagers visited the Gold Coast in the IGth century, bring- 

 ing thence in exchanging for European goods, gold, ivor}^ pepper, and 

 Grains of Paradise} The pepper was doubtless that of Piper Glusii 

 (p. 589). 



Grains of paradise, often called simply grains, were anciently used 

 as a condiment like pepper. They were also employed with cinnamon 

 and ginger in making the spiced wine called hippocras, in vogue during 

 the 14th and 15th centuries. 



In the Portuguese and Spanish idioms, the name Melegueta, spelt 

 in various ways, as Melegette, Melligetta, Mallaguetta, Maiiigete, Mani- 

 guette, was subsequently also applied to other substitutes of pepper, 

 and even to that spice iteelf. 



In the hands of modem botanists, the plant affording grains of 

 paradise has been the subject of a complication of errors which it is 

 needless to discuss. Suffice it to say, that Amomum Gran uin Paradisi 

 as described by Linnaeus cannot be identified; — that in 1817, Afzelius, 

 a Swedish botanist, who resided some years at Sierra Leone, published 

 a description of "Amcmium Gi'anum Paradisi? Linn.,"- but that the 

 specimen of it alleged to have been received from him, and now pre- 

 served in the herbarium of Sir J. E. Smith, belongs to another species. 

 Under these circumstances, the name given to the grains of paradise 

 plant by Roscoe, A. Melegueta, has been accepted as quite free from 

 doubt.^ 



Description — The seeds are about ^^r of an inch in diameter, rather 

 variable in form, being roundish, bluntly angular or somewhat pyramidal. 

 They are hard, with a shining, reddish-brown, shagreen-like surface. 

 The hilum is beak-shaped and .of paler colour. The seeds when crushed 

 are feebly aromatic, but have a most pungent and burning taste. 



Microscopic Structure — In structure, grains of paradise agree in 

 most respects with cardamom seeds. Yet in the former, the cells of the 

 albumen have very thin, delicate walls which are much more elongated. 

 Of the testa, only the innermost layer agrees with the coiTesponding 

 part of cardamom ; whilst the middle layer has the cell walls so much 

 thickened that only a few ca\dties, widely distant from one another, 

 remain open. The outer layer of the t«sta consists of thick -walled 

 cells, the cavities of which appear, on transverse section, radially ex- 

 tended. The albumen is loaded with starch granules of 2 to 5 mkm. 

 diameter, the whole amoiuit in each cell being agglutinated, so as to 

 form a coherent mass. 



Chemical Composition — Grains of paradise contain a small pro- 

 portion of essential oil ; 53 lb. yielded us only 2 J oz., equivalent to 

 nearly 0'30 per cent.* The oil is faintly yellowish, neutral, of an 

 agreeable odour reminding one of the seeds, and of an aromatic, not 

 acrid taste. It has a sp. gr. at 15*5° C., of 0825, It is but sparingly 

 soluble in absolute alcohol or in spirit of wine ; but mixes clearly with 



^ Hakluyt, Principal Navigations, ii. pt. years, obtaining not only flowers, but large 



2. — First Voiage of the Primerose and Lion well- ripened fruits containing fertile seeds. 



to Guinea and Benin, a. d. 1553. — D. H. 



- Remedia Guirieensia, Upsalise, p. 71. * This oil was obtained and tried in 



^ I have repeatedly raised ^OTOTTJMTOitfeZe- medicine in the beginning of the 17th cen- 



giieta from commercial Grains of Paradise, tury. — Porta, De Distiltatione, Romse, 1608, 



and have cultivated the plant for some lib. iv. c. 4. 



