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 breed that 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 
gingerbread.” 
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 
53 
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 crown to his sugary 
toes, 
Is this dear little, queer little ginger-bread 
man, 
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. Ina 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; 1, 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. 
