665 



6-12 in. high, arising from the rhizome; flowers yello^dsh -white. 

 Pruit — rarely seen — ^a capsule containing a number of small 

 black, angular seeds. 



IlL — Rheede, Hort. Mai. xi. t. 12; Jacq. Hort. Bot. Vindob. 

 i. t, 75 {Amomum Zingiber)) Roscoe, Scitamineae, t. 83; Wagner^ 

 Pharm. Medic. Bot. tt. 119, 120; Nees von Esenbeck, Plant. 

 Medic. DUsseld. t. 61 {Amomnm Zingiber); Woodville, Med. Bot. 

 iv. t. 250 {Amomum Zingiber)', Guimpel, Abbild. Beschr. iii. 

 t. 257; Stephenson & Churchill Med. Bot. ii. t. 9G; Burnett,. 

 PL UtiL i. t. 3b; Van Hall, Zingiberaceae, tt. 1, 2; Berg & 

 Schmidt, Darst, & Beschr. Pharm. iv, t. 34b; Bentl. & Trimen,. 

 Med. PL t. 270; Duthie, Field Crops, t. 100; Zippel, AusL 

 Handels Nahrpfl. t. 11; Kohler, Med. Pflan, ii; Agric. Gaz. 

 N.S- Wales, ii. 1891, t. 50; Queensland Agric. Journ. vi. 1900,, 

 p. 498, tt, 201-203 (var. Cholmondeleyi) ; Greenish, Materia Med. 

 p. 435 (rhizomes— Jamaica, African, Cochin) ; Karst. & Schenck, 

 Veg. bild. viii. t. 40 (habit); Agric. Journ. India, vi. 1911,- 

 Frontispiece (Healthy and Diseased plants). 



Vernac. name. — Chitta Afu (Hausa, Dalziel), — Ginger. 

 Cultivated in Tropical Asia, East and West Indies, West 



■t 



(C 



ii 



Africa, etc. 



A well-known spice, a preserve and largely used by mineral 

 water manufacturers. The commercial forms are known by 

 their country of origin, as " Jamaica," " Sierra Leone,'^ 

 Japanese/' etc. and further as *' coated," '' scraped," 

 bleached " or '' unbleached," Preserved ginger is the tender 

 growing parts of the rhizome peeled and preserved in syrup^ 

 and " Chinese Green Ginger " is specially grown for this purpose, 

 cultivated in the Delta of the Canton river. Although cultivated 

 in many parts of West Africa, including Northern Nigeria, Sierra 

 Leone, French Guinea, French Sudan and Dahomey (Chevalier, 

 BidL Soc. Nat. d'Accl. France, 1912, p. 317) it is only from 

 Sierra Leone that the product ajipears to be a regular export, 

 from whence in 1914, 1213 tons value £15,639 and in 1915, 



1 — 



567 tons value £8,091 were shipped. In 1915 the average price 

 was 245. per cwt, (CoL Rep. Ann. No. 888, 1916, p. 9). In 1$96 

 the botanical Department at Victoria in the Cameroons shipped 

 270 kilos value £5 (Kew Bull. 1890, p. 177). It is reported as 

 being extensively propagated in Nyasaland Protectorate 1908^, 

 where there were 2000 strong plants derived from 2 small plants 

 received from Kew in 1901 (Chem. & Druggist, Oct- 10th, 1908, 

 p. 583) and in 1914 a sample from Natal was considered of good 

 quality and valued at about £20 per ton (CoL Rep. Ann. No. 882, 



1916, p. 20). 



The plant is propagated by pieces of the growing or budding 

 ends of the rhizomes, planted in well-drained rich light soil 

 2-3 in. below the surface, about a foot apart, the field for the 

 best crops being planted annually. When pieces are left in at 

 the time of gathering — '' ratoon ginger " — the crop deteriorates. 

 The ground is occupied for nearly the w^hole year, harvesting by 



