FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 427 



ginger." The coated or unscraped sort is similarly 

 prepared, excepting that the rhizomes are unscraped ; 

 this is sometimes called Black Ginger. The varieties 

 now commonly found in British commerce are 

 Jamaica, Cochin, Bengal, and African. The African 

 is a coated ginger ; but the three others are scraped 

 or uncoated. Ginger is used in medicine as a stimu- 

 lant, aromatic, and carminative, and as a rubefacient 

 to relieve toothache and headache ; it is also ex- 

 tensively used as a condiment, and is sometimes 

 imported in a green state. Preserved ginger of the 

 shops is prepared by carefully picking the young 

 rhizomes or the young shoots of the old rhizomes, 

 which after being washed and scraped are preserved 

 in jars with syrup. — ' Medicinal Plants,' Bentley and 

 Trimen, vol. iv., 270. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea. (Cultivated.) 



Costus afer, Ken — The plant is used by the natives 

 of Sierra Leone as a specific againt nausea. — Kew 

 Museum. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea. 



Arrowroot {Maranta arundinacea, L.). — Herbaceous 

 perennial, valued for its rhizomes, from which a starch 

 is extracted known as Arrowroot. The process of 

 extraction adopted in Jamaica is as follows. The 

 rhizomes are dug up, well washed in water, and then 

 beaten to a pulp in large deep wooden mortars, and 

 thrown into a large tub of clean water ; the whole is 



