288 
Palmetto Straw from Turks Islands.—The following is an 
extract from the Annual Report on the Turks and Caicos Islands. 
(Colonial Reports, Annual, No. 230, p. 8. 
small minor kysti di collection and export of 
Palmetto straw, which gives employment to women and children 
owing principally to the troubles in Cuba, which have, as I 
understand, caused the supply ordinarily obtainable from there to 
fail. 
Amomum ngu Sonnerat. Voy. Ind. iii., 276, t. 137.— 
This plant is widely distributed in. tropical Africa. A full 
description with Tocal ities à is given in the recently issued Flora of 
Tropical Africa, Vol. VII. (pt. ii.), p. 308. Under the name of 
A. Danielii it is figured in Bot. Mag., T 4,764. There has hitherto 
been no record of its being of economic value. 
The following extract from a letter received from Mr. Joh 
Mahon, formerly of Kew and now attached to the Scientific 
Department of the Administration of British Central Africa, p 
some interesting particulars of this plant. The * Korarima Carda 
mom," for which this plant was taken by Mr. Mahon, is still 
unrepresented in the Kew Musuem 
EXTRACT from letter from Mr. J. Mahon to Royal Gardens, Kew, 
dated Zomba, British Central Africa, June 6, 1898. 
The receipt of the Cardamoms has reminded me to write you 
concerning a plant fairly common by stream sides and in moist 
gullies here which I take to be the * Korarima Cardamom” 
referred to in Kew Bulletin A ses p.400). I iiim seeds of this 
with nd fruits some time o Kew, and. also a specimen of 
the flower. The plant ei in "ova mber, and last season I 
collected and dried several specimens, but during one of my 
absences from Zomba my boys cleared them out and only the 
flower sent remained. Iam sure, however, the Herbarium on 
possess foliage and stems of such a striking plant. I am no 
drying stems which I will forward when ready, and I shall pat 
more flowers when the time comes. I have E, collected a 
few ripe fruits and sun-dried them and these are sent in this mail 
the ripe fruits raw occasionally and, I believe, use the seeds 
or “Tambala.” It is a handsome and stri riking plant, often reach- 
ing a height of 15 feet. The fruits, often produced in clusters of 
three, are a leger shining scarlet. The flowers are of a tawny- 
orange colour with some rose-coloured markings; they are pro- 
duced in detai compact clusters almost impossible to dry en masse 
owing to their containing so much water. Roots that I have had 
taken up possess very little pisat or ginger-like properties, 
indeed the leaves are richer in arom 
