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o n 
Playfair, Her Majesty’s Consul at Swatow, in 1878, it was “concluded 
that the plant yielding Chinese ginger was something different from 
the ordinary ginger plant (Zingiber officinale). The prominence given 
ject in the Bulletin has 
fact app w to be established that Chinese ginger, in spite 
of the superficial difference in the appearance of * the large flat finger- 
like with West Indian and other commercial 
ginger, is pegs O A by Zingiber officinale. The plants 
received from Mr. Playfair have been shown to belong to Alpinia 
Galanga, Willd. ae 
ago 
It is probable that none of the preserved ginger received in this country 
is derived from the latter plant. Mr. Pla ayfair evidently took some trouble 
in the matter, and he forwarded plants given him at Swatow as Chinese id 
E . h i ah 
inger. it is cle 
in the selection of plant desired, for which Mr. Playfair himself 
was only indirectly responsible. ‘The further identification of the — 
mee ge ommerce is carefully discussed in the following 
pers and correspondence 

SUPERINTENDENT, Boranical. Department, Hone Kone, to 
Roya, GARDENS, Kew 
Botanic Gardens, Hong Kong, 
Sm, April 9, 1891, 
I was much interested in rede the article in the January 
mber of the Kew Bulletin on Chinese ginger, but, with all due 
deference to the saxa in the subject, I am afraid that the conclusion - 
red is erroneous... I. have not seen anything which to me is. 
Reign that Alpinia D Willd., is a source of Chinese preserved - 
r.. I have never entertained any doubt that Zingiber officinale, 
Lon. supplied the material solely used in the Moor of preserved 

ginger at Canton. It may be in t the appearance of the rhizomes is 
different from ordinary ginger as grown in WA "Tndiee bat I. 
g 
am inclined to ascribe any ditierenes between the two to the result of 
lie 
evum that, as I have been Pec by a gentleman here who has 
orm, or, if it had been otherwise, dried ginger would have been ex- 
rted from China long ago. ‘The ginger used for preserving is, I be- 
lieve, een grown in the rich alluvial lands of the Canton delta, but the 
lant when grown in mountainous districts, as I myself have seen, 
is much ler, and is capable of being dried for local use, the Chinese 
ascribing much more valuable properties to it as a drug when grown in- 
such localitie ties : 
I feel compelled to dismiss „Alpinia afi ser or any other - 
Alpinia altogether from my mind as a s of pres rved ginger, and Į — 
am cage to think that Mr. Play fair hn in 1878, po sent to England yu 
a case of roots of A/pinia Galanga, Willd., as the source of T presen 
ginger, was duel s the natives who supplied the plants 
a < 
A E 

