AMOMUM. 
One of the most extensive, and at the same time the most obscure and’ difficult of the genera of 
Scitaminean Plants. This will not appear extraordinary when it is considered, that but few of the species 
have hitherto flowered in Europe. The flowers of this genus seem also to be the most delicate and 
perishable of the whole order, insomuch that when sent as dried specimens from abroad, they seldom arrive 
in such a state as to afford an opportunity of examining those minuter and more essential parts, on which 
their botanical characters depend; the fermentation proceeding from the saccharine and aromatic nature of 
the flowers, uniting with the tribes of minute insects which infest them, rapidly to destroy all the finer parts.* 
The only mode of obtaining these very interesting plants from abroad, in a state suitable for examination, 
is by preserving them in spirits, secured from external air; by which process their most minute and delicate 
organs may be ascertained with the utmost precision, although the colours of the flowers are generally lost. 
Another cause of the difficulties in which this part of our subject yet continues to be involved, is 
to be attributed to the erroneous ideas of our early botanists, who not being acquainted with any determinate 
and certain method of defining and arranging this portion of the vegetable kingdom, and finding that Amomum 
was the name of an aromatic plant well known to the ancients, referred to this head almost all the plants 
of this tribe which occurred to their notice. Thus the Zingihers (themselves a numerous genus) although 
essentially different, both in their conformation. and properties, were, until these very few years, included in 
the genus Amomum, as were also several of the species of Costus and Alpinia; nor is it by any means certain 
that many plants which are still retained and enumerated in our general systems under this head, will not, 
when more accurately ascertained, from an examination of living plants, be found to belong to other genera. 
The most effectual attempt that has yet been made to elucidate and arrange this genus, is that of 
Sir James Edward Smith, published in the Supplement to Rees’s Cyclopedia, under the title Amomum, and 
rectifying in some respects the original article in the body of that work. In this dissertation the learned 
author has not only given a full and accurate history of the genus, but has followed it by a particular 
description of every species, as far as the information existing respecting them extends. Since that period 
to the present, very few additional acquisitions have been made; and I shall therefore content myself on the 
present occasion with referring the reader to that very popular work, where he will find all that is at 
present known on the subject, fully stated, and subjected to an impartial and enlightened criticism. In this 
dissertation, sixteen species are enumerated, with their proper synonyms and history, as far as any information 
could be found respecting them. The Systema Vegetabilium of Roemer and Schultes, since published, contains 
twelve admitted, and seven doubtful species, all reduced afterwards to ten, and the still later work of Sprengel, 
enumerates ¢wenty species, amongst which are doubtless several repetitions. 
In the Botanic Garden at Liverpool are several plants which have not yet flowered, but which have been 
received as species of Amomum; amongst these is one that has been grown there for several years, sent by 
the late Dr. Roxburgh under the name of Amomum Taracca, which scarcely reaches the height of two feet, 
and whose stem and leaves have a scent strongly resembling cinnamon. 
All the species of Amomum, as far as we are acquainted with them, flower laterally from the root ; 
this genus is, according to Sir J. EH. Smith, “ one of the most natural that can exist in any natural order ;” 
but the arrangement of the species is attended with great difficulty from the want of information respecting 
those parts of the fructification on which their distinctions principally depend. Deprived in most cases of the 
opportunity of examining the corolla, we are compelled to resort to the fruit, which there is reason to believe 
would, if we could depend on the specimens occasionally found, sufficiently distinguish the species. These 
we apprehend might be divided into two portions, viz. such as have a fibrous capsule, opening in three lobes, 
and such as have a thick pulpy capsule of one cell, with an interior columella, or receptacle, in which the seeds are 
imbedded in a tomentose substance. The various forms and size of the capsules exhibit other diversities, and 
the peculiarities and qualities of the seeds, may also be resorted to for a similar purpose. 
* Ex viginti circiter Amomeis in Herbario Bonplandii a me _repertas, quatuor tantum cognita sunt. Reliqua nova; quas tamen non 
descripsi, ob florum corruptionem et cariem.’—Kunth in Humb. et Bonpl. Nov. Gen. p. 264. Ap. Roemer & Schultes, v. i. p. 572. 
