632 



MEDICAL BOTANY. 



Fig. 287. 



wedge-shaped, of a shining golden-brown, with mi- 

 nute warts and wrinkles. Their odour is faintly- 

 aromatic, and their taste aromatic, warm, and pep- 

 pery. They contain a Volatile oil, acrid Resin, 

 Tragacanthin, &c. Their properties are very ana- 

 logous to those of pepper. They are seldom em- 

 ployed in this country, but are in much repute in 

 Africa as a condiment. It is stated that in England 

 they are consumed in large quantities to drug fer- 

 mented and spirituous liquors. 



3. A. angustifolium, Sonnerat. — Rhizome horizontal. 

 Stems tall. Leaves lanceolate, much acuminated. Scape 

 radical, closely imbricated, with mucronate bracts. Spikes 

 linear-oblong, also imbricated with bracts. Calyx deep 

 blood-red, obscurely 3-toothed, slit. Tube of corolla clavate. 

 Lip obovate, cuneiform, 3-lobed, yellow. Capsule ovate, 

 pointed, striated. 



Sonnerat, It. ii. t. 137 ; Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. i. 

 39 ; Smith, Rees* Cyclop. ; Lindley, Fl. Med. 565. 



Capsule of A. angustifolium. 



This species is a native of Madagascar, where it 

 grows in wet situations. Every part of it, when bruised, diffuses a pleasant 

 but powerful aromatic odour. The fruit is the Cardamomum majvs of the 

 older writers, the great or Madagascar Cardamom of Smith. The seeds are 

 somewhat larger than Grains of Paradise, but have not their hot pungent 

 taste, being more analogous, in this respect, to the Malabar Cardamom. 



4. A. cardamomum, Linn. — Rhizome horizontal, creeping. Stems 

 oblique. Leaves alternate, bifarious, connected by short petioles 

 with their smooth, amplexicaul sheaths, lanceolate, entire, smooth, 

 tapering to a fine point. Spikes radical, sessile, loosely imbri- 

 cated, with 1-flowered, lanceolate, villous, scarious bracts. Calyx 

 clavate, tubular, downy, 3-toothed, as long as the tube of the co- 

 rolla. Tube of corolla slender, and a little incurved ; outer series 

 of three nearly equal, pellucid divisions; inner rather longer than 

 the exterior, somewhat 3-lobed, with a crenate, curled margin. 

 Filaments scarcely half as long as the limb, incurved over mouth 

 of tube. Anther double, large, with a 3-lobed, concave crest. Cap- 

 sules sessile, about the size of a black currant, globular. Seeds 

 rounded-angular, dotted, brown. 



Linn., Sp. Fl. 2 ; Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. i. 37 ; Lindley, Fl. Med. 564. 



A native of the mountainous districts of many of the East Indian Islands, 

 and cultivated in India. The fruit is the Round Cardamom of the shops, 

 and the seeds have much the same taste and properties as the Malabar or 

 true Cardamom. They are seldom employed in this country or England. 

 They are considered by Sir J. E. Smith to be the Amomum verum of the 

 older Pharmaceutists, and were known to Dioscorides and Pliny, being the 

 Amomi uva of the latter. 



Besides these, several other species have been noticed as affording a fruit 

 having the properties of Cardamom. Dr. Pereira has ably investigated this 

 subject, and has done much to elucidate it, though great uncertainty still re- 

 mains with regard to some of the fruits known as Cardamoms. The following 

 is an abstract of his views. 



Fig. 288. 



Capsule of A. carda- 

 momum. 



5. A. clusii, or the Long-seeded Cardamom, has an ovate, pointed, somewhat triangu- 



