^ 664 



of the year. The fruits are dried in the sun on mats or trays or 

 in special curing houses and the dried ends — calyces— are clipped 

 off by hand or by machinery. The appearance of the fruit is 

 sometimes improved by bleaching in strong sunlight or treating 

 with starch or sulphur vapour, when they are ready for packing. 

 (See Watt, Owen, Ridley, ^e^.) 



Ref. — " A Botanical Description and Natural History of the 

 Malabar Cardamom/' White, in Trans. Linn. Soc. x, (1808) 



pp. 229-255. '' Fructus Cardamomi," in Pharmacographia. 



Fliickiger & Hanbury, pp. 643-651 (Macmillan & Co. London, 



1879). Notes on Cardamom Cultivation, Owen (Ferguson, 



Colombo, 1883),—" EleUariaCardamomiim^' in Diet. Econ. Prod. 



India, Watt. iii. 1890, pp. 227-230. "Cardamom Cultivation 



in the Bombay Presidency," MolHson, Agric. Ledger, No. II, 



1900, pp. 107-113. " EletMria Cardamomiim. " in The Coram. 



Prod, of India, Watt, pp. 511-517 (John Murray, London, 1908). 



'' Cardamom Oil," in The Chemistry of Essential Oils, Parry, 



pp. 196-200 (Scott, Greenwood & Son, London, 1908).^— 

 *' Cardamoms," in Materia Medica, Greenish, pp. 164-1 C7 (J. & 



A. Churchill, London. 1909). '' Cardamoms " in Spices, Ridlev, 



pp. 324-359 (Macmillan & Co., Ltd., London, 1912). 



DoNAX, Lour. 



r 



Donax cuspidata, Schumann; Fl. Trop. Afr. VII. p. 315. 



III. — Roscoe, Scitamineae, t. 31 {Maranta cuspidata). 



Vernac. names. — Afifiogili, Onwa (S. Nigeria, Thomas) ; 

 Einibi, Fitta (Hausa, Yates). 



Cross River, Abeokuta and Lokoja, in Nigeria, and also 

 found in the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, Uganda, etc. 



Leaves very much sought after for wrapping " Kola Nuts " 

 in, N. Nigeria (Yates, No. 39 Herb. Kew) ; [the leaves of Donax 

 Jilipes, Schumann, (Hausa name " Fita ") are also stated to be 

 commonly used to wrap up food (Dalziel, Hausa Bot. Voc. p. 31)]. 

 Used for making fishing-nets. Gold Coast (Dudgeon, No. 6, 

 Herb. Kew) ; stems used for binding in walls of wooden huts, 

 ■Coomassie (Cummins, Herb. Kew). 



Growing in jungle by streams, flowers March to April, Lapai, 

 N. Nigeria (Yates I.e.); plant 3 ft. high, Lokoja (Shaw, Herb. 

 Kew), 8-10 ft. Abeokuta (Barter, Herb. Kew), 12 ft. high, stems 



in. diam 



high 



Kew), 



1906, p. 58). 



Miss 



ZiNGiBEE, Adans. 



Zingiber oflacinale. Rose, in Trans. Linn. Soc. viii, (1807) 

 p. 348. 



Rootstock a fleshy rhizome, with leafy stems about 2 ft. 

 high. Leaves lanceolate-acuminate, hght green, about 6 in. 

 long and | in. wide in the middle. Inflorescence on stem about 



