376 SUBTERRANEAN ORGANS 



through Europe to England. It was introduced by the Spaniards 

 into the West Indies and Jamaica. 



In Jamaica the plant is largely cultivated. It is propagated by 

 dividing the rhizome into ' fingers,' each of which contains a bud, 

 and planting these about a foot apart. They grow rapidly and flower 

 in the autumn. When the aerial stems wither the rhizomes are dug 

 up, freed from the roots, and washed. They are then peeled with a 

 narrow-bladed knife, by which the layer of cork and part of the 

 parenchyma of the cortex are removed, after which they are again 

 washed, and dried in the sun. The product is known as unbleached 

 Jamaica ginger. Although the use of a revolving drum for removing 

 much of the peel and of a drying machine for rapidly drying the rhizomes 

 has been suggested, this machinery does not appear to have been 

 successfully introduced. 



Much ginger is found in commerce from which the cork layer has 

 not been removed, or which has been deprived of it on the flatter sides 

 only. Such ginger is known as coated ' ' or ' unscraped,' whilst that 

 which has been completely peeled is called ' scraped.' Sometimes, 

 too, the rhizomes are treated with sulphurous acid or chlorine, or they 

 are dusted over with calcium sulphate or carbonate which imparts to 

 them a whitish appearance ; ginger that has been treated so is termed 

 ' bleached ' or ' limed ' ginger. In addition therefore to being obtained 

 from different countries, ginger may vary in appearance according to 

 the way in which it has been prepared for the market. As with nutmegs , 

 limed ginger is undoubtedly less susceptible to the attacks of insect 

 pests. Ginger is commonly washed and limed abroad, but is also 

 usually rewashed and heavily limed in London. 



Description. Unbleached Jamaica ginger, which is the official 

 variety and the one that is most esteemed, occurs in flattened branched 

 pieces technically termed 'races' or 'hands.' These vary in length, 

 but average about 7 to 10 cm. From the upper surface of the main 

 rhizome, which is usually straight, numerous branches about 3 cm. 

 in length appear to arise and take an upward course ; they are often 

 slightly compressed laterally, enlarged near the rhizome, and, tapering 

 abruptly, terminate in the remains of an undeveloped bud or a small 

 depressed scar indicating the point of attachment of an aerial stem. 

 The branches themselves also produce lateral branchlets. All these 

 branches and branchlets arise from buds on the under surface of the 

 rhizome in the axils of cataphyllary leaves. When the growth of 

 the main axis is terminated by the production of an aerial shoot, one 

 of these buds develops, curves upwards, and itself in due time produces 

 an aerial shoot and develops a lateral branch. Each piece of the drug 

 or ' hand ' is therefore a sympodial branch system. 



The colour of the drug is usually pale yellowish buff ; the surface 

 is strongly striated or even fibrous, the fibres, being the leaf-traces 



