114 GINGER. 



tion of pepper was enormous. This condiment at last 

 reached such importance that it became an almost universal 

 unit of currency. It served severallv for payment of taxes, 

 rents, dues and ransom, and as a costly gift, and was parti- 

 cularlv mentioned in wills. In the thirteenth and four- 

 teenth centuries pepper was decidedly the first among 

 spices : it was so expensive that the poorer classes could 

 not afford to use it regularly, and "cher comme poivre" 

 became proverbial. This craving for condiments arose, 

 as Le Grand d'Aussy tells us, from the many indigestible 

 articles of food which were in use at that time. Man}- 

 fastidious gourmands carried spices with them in order 

 to flavour the food at table according to their own 

 palate. Regnard calls these Epicureans "Docteurs en 

 Soupers". 



Ginger is mentioned in Wilhelm Heyd's "Geschichte 

 des Levantehandels im Mittelalter", as being one of the 

 most widely used of the spices of those times — almost 

 as much in request as pepper. This plant, A\hose native 

 country is India, may also be seen at La Mortola. The 

 green shoots, which are a yard high, spring from the 

 aromatic "root-stock", which is hidden in the soil. The 

 stems resemble those of the Canna ivhich we grow in 

 our gardens, and, Hke them, bear leaves arranged in 

 two rows; the leaves, however, are smaller. The yellow 

 and violet flowers are borne in the axils of bracts which 

 grow verv close together at the apex of the shoots. At 

 La Mortola the Ginger does not blossom, and even in 

 Asia flower-bearing shoots are rarely developed. Pieces 

 of the "root-stock", either peeled or not, form the ginger 



