Messrs. IDE AND CHRISTIE to ROYAL GARDENS, Kew. 
72, Mark Lane, E.C., 
Dear Sir, October 24, 1890. 
е your favour of the 23rd instant, and duly note the 
contents of enclosed =e from Minute of Governor of Lagos on the 
fibre of Raphia vi 
ince we last wr fot tb you on this subject, a few bales of “ African 
Bast” recently imported have been sold and reached the extreme price 
of 421. The fibre had been carefully selected and remarkably well 
cleaned, hence the excellent market it met with. We scarcely expect 
this price would be maintained for substantial quantities, but for fibre 
of equal merit the immediate outlook would seem to indicate that 357. 
to 401. might be the range of value. 
Yours, &e. | 
(Signed) Іри AND CHRISTIE. 
D. Morris, Esq., M.A., F.L.S. 
CLXXXIII.—CHINESE GINGER. 
Alpinia Galanga, Willd. 
Every one is familiar with the preserved ginger which comes to our 
dessert tables from China, and is imported in earthenware jars of more 
or less artistic. merit. s long ago as 1878, Dr. Perceval Wright, Pro- 
fessor of Botany in the University of Dublin, € to Kev, | pointing 
out that the “large flat finger-like masses sent to this coun 
a as preserved ginger,” differed from iral that the ordinary 
ginger plant (Zingiber —À could possibly produce. The fact 
itself was obvious as scon as it was pointed ou 
The question then чуге sas arose what was the plant used b 
Chinese. Ginger itself, as is the case with so many cultivated plants, is 
unknown ina wild state. But there can be little doubt that it isa 
native of Asia. It was known as a spice to the Greeks and Romans, 
who received it by way of the Red Sea and supposed it to be a pro- 
duction of southern Arabia. It was very early introduced into the 
West Indies, from which it was shipped for commercial purposes 
Europe as early as the 16th century. The dried € met with in 
British commerce is almost entirely derived fro e West Indies, 
Sions ев Leone, Egypt, and India. 1t is noteworthy he we receive none 
om Chi 
At the ` instance of Professor Perceval ае sag Mr. G. H. M. Playfair 
(of H. M. Chinese Consular service) sent a Wardian case of the Chinese 
plant to Kew in 1878. The satis were sciatis ithout diffieulty and 
б distributed to tropical colonies. Unfortunately е brought us 
no nearer the solution of the difficulty. That the plant was different 
to ordinary ginger was obvious. = prt of the сае family, as is 
the case with many plants which are easily propagated by their екй, 
are shy of flowering in cultivation, ‘wile their foliage is all so much 
alike that it affords ù equate means of СЕ The plant 
maed refused to flower at Kew, as it also appears to cene done in 
to donations of growth in ‘some colonial stot enabled ie to be 
furnished with the necessary material for identification. 
