ZINGIBER OFFICINALE. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
a 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER. 
EN. CHar.—. : 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther double, filament extending beyond the anther in an awl-shaped, grooved beak, embracing 
the style. 
SpEc. Cuar.—Spike radical, bractes ovate, obtuse ; margins membranaceous ; lip in three segments, middle segment 
ovate, slightly notched ; leaves narrow, linear-lanceolate. 
Syy.—Amomum Zingiber. Linn. Sp. Pl. Willd. 1576: / 
Inschi Kua. Rheed. Hort. Mal. 11, 21. tab. 19. 
Zingiber Majus. Rumph. Amb. 5, 156. tab. 66. f, i 
Amomum Zingiber. Jacq. Hort. Vindob. vy. 1, tab. 75. 
Ada, or Adrac, of the Hindoos and Bengalese. Roxb. Flor. Ind. 1, 46. 
Common Ginger. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root creeping ;_ tubers palmate, fleshy, becoming fibrous; stem annual, single, erect, about two feet high ; 
leaves alternate, on short decurrent petioles, with a bifid stipulary ligula, narrow, intire, linear-lanceolate, 6—12 
inches long, equilateral ; scape radical, erect, round, covered with long obtuse scales, 
sometimes terminate in leaves, 10-12 inches high 
the uppermost of which 
; spikes solitary, erect, club-shaped, compact ; bractes broad, 
ovate, imbricated, green, striated, with a yellow membranaceous margin ; calyx tubular, three-toothed ; corolla with a 
double limb ; outer limb of three lanceolate segments, one rather larger, erect, the other two declined below the 
lip; inner limb or lip ovate, slightly notched, purple, with light spots, and two short lateral acute teeth or 
segments ; filament extending beyond the anther, in an awl-shaped beak, grooved, and embracing the style ; anther 
double, large, ovate ; style filiform, with two subulate pointed processes at the base ; stigma a compressed ciliated cup. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
We are informed by Dr. Roxsuren, Flor. Ind. vol. I. p- 46, that this plant, although universally known and 
cultivated over all the warmer parts of Asia, is very rarely found in a flowering state, and that he had never seen 
the seeds. Sir James E. Surru also has observed, that it has not been found practicable to procure any specimen, 
or account of the fruit, which, from the great increase of the roots, he conceives is not often perfected. 
The plants in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool have not ripened their seeds; but we are informed that the 
fruit is a smooth fleshy capsule, three-cornered and three-valved, with many oblong arilled seeds. Hort. Jam. p- 393. 
The ginger has long been introduced from the East inte the West Indies, and particularly into Barbadoes and 
Jamaica, where it is extensively cultivated, and forms an important article of commerce. 
“ When the root is intended for a sugar preserve, it is dug while tender and full of juice. The stems at this 
time rarely exceed five or six inches in height. The root is carefully picked, washed, and afterwards scalded, till it 
is sufficiently tender. It is then put in cold water, and peeled and scraped gradually. This operation may last three 
or four days, during which it is commonly kept in water, and the water frequently shifted, as well for cleanliness 
as to extract more of the native acrimony. After this preparation it is laid in unglazed jars, and covered with a 
thin syrup, which in two or three days is shifted, and a richer put in. This is sometimes again removed, for a 
third or fourth; but more than three are seldom requisite. The shifted syrups are not lost, for in Jamaica they 
are diluted with water, and fermented into a pleasant liquor, called cool-drink, with some mixture of the chaw- 
stick, lignum-vite, and sugar.” —Long’s History of Jamaica. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Outer bracte. 
2. Inner bracte and corolla. 
3. Anther and style. 
4. Lip. 
