highly prized during the middle ages. 

 There are a number of beverages which 

 contain ginger. Gingerade is water 

 charged with carbonic acid gas and 

 flavored with ginger, being almost 

 identical with ginger-pop. Ginger- 

 beer is prepared by fermenting cream- 

 ot-tartar, ginger, and sugar with yeast 

 and water. Ginger-ale is supposed to 

 be identical with ginger-beer. These 

 ginger drinks are all refreshing, but I 

 believe my readers will agree that 

 there is usually too much ginger pres- 

 ent; the hot, burning sensation in the 

 mouth is not very pleasant. It may 

 be that the trouble lies in taking too 

 much of the drink at a time. 



In my estimation ginger as used by 

 the baker is most appreciated and here 

 again I believe my readers will agree 

 with me. Who has not heard of gin- 

 ger-bread? This sweet cake flavored 

 with ginger is not by any means of re- 

 cent origin. The great English bard 

 Chaucer sang its praises long ago 

 (1328-1400): 



"They fette him first the sweete wyn, 

 And mede eek in a maselyn, 



And roial spicerye 

 Of ginge dreed tha.t was full fyn." 



Shakespeare also must have valued 

 this bread very highly, for in the play, 

 "Love's Labor Lost," he says: 



"An I had but one penny in the 

 world thou shouldst have it to buy 

 ghigerbready 



Ginger-bread is often made into fan- 

 ciful shapes. Cats, dogs, horses, ele- 

 phants, and men are cut out of the 

 rolled dough and then baked. Many 

 of my readers are perhaps familiar 

 with some of the beautiful playtime 

 songs of Alice Riley and Jessie Gay- 

 nor. The following are the words of 

 one of these songs, entitled, "The 

 Ginger-bread Man." It describes the 

 ginger-bread man very beautifully in 

 the first verse. His awful fate, evidently 

 in the hands of a small cannibal, is very 

 graphically described in the second 

 verse. I regret being wholly unable 



to supply the music. Here are the 

 words by Alice Riley: 



"Oh the ginger-bread man, the ginger-bread 



man, 

 The round little, brown little ginger-bread 



man, 

 He has sugary eyes and a sugary nose, 

 And he's sweet from his rown to his sugary 



toes, 

 Is this dear little, queer little ginger-bread 



tnan, 

 This dear little ginger-bread man. 



"Oh the ginger-bread man, the ginger- bread 



man, 

 The poor little, sad little ginger-bread man, 

 For he lost his poor arms, and he lost both 



his feet. 

 And he lost his poor head, it was so good to 



eat. 

 And his vest buttons tasted uncommonly 



sweet, 

 Ah, poor little ginger-bread man," 



Gingersnaps are very much liked by 

 many. I used to demolish them by 

 the pound until someone whispered in 

 my ear that "bad eggs were used in 

 making them." Since then my ap- 

 petite for gingersnaps has lessened. I 

 hope what that man said is not true. 

 Gingernut is another cake containing 

 ginger and sweetened with molasses. 



At the present time ginger is not 

 very extensively used as a medicine. 

 The powder or tincture is effective in 

 some forms of indigestion. It is used 

 to correct a bad breath, in tooth-ache, 

 as a gargle and mouth-wash, in colic, 

 and in dysentery. In a German work 

 on pharmacy I find that it is recom- 

 mended in catarrh of the stomach and 

 for "Katzenjammer." It will not be 

 necessary to explain what Katzenjam- 

 mer means. 



Explanation of plate: 



A, plant about natural size; i, flower 

 bud; 2, flower; 3, outer floral parts 

 separated; 4, longitudinal section of 

 flower; 5, nectary with the rudimentary 

 and perfect stamens; 6, pistil and 

 rudimentary stamen; 7, upper end of 

 style with stigma; 8 and 9, ovary in 

 longitudinal and transverse sections. 



