and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society'— May, 1912. 



463 



The Malabar cardamom-plant formerly yielded 

 the bulk of the spice imported into this country, 

 but the cultivated Mysore variety now affords 

 most of the fine quality. The latter plant poss- 

 esses a more robust habit, having larger and 

 coarser leaves of deeper colour, and bearing ex- 

 posure bettor than the Malabar type. The most 

 noticeable difference its the inflorescences which- 

 spring almost vort cally from the bulb of the 

 Mysore variety, but spread along the surface of 

 the soil in the Malabar description. It is not 

 known how the district name "Mysore'' came 

 to designate the variety of a cardamom plant. 

 There is, however, much confusion regarding 

 the equivalents in India of these two cultivated 

 types, some holding that the names are reversed 

 in India. There also appear to be two varieties 

 of Malabar plants, var. minus being confined to 

 Southern India and var. ma jus growing in 

 Ceylon. The latter is distinguished by its shorter 

 stems, broader leaves, and less globose fruits. 



The reed-like nature of the true or lesser car- 

 damom-plant is evident from the figure, which 

 shows a complete young plant of the cultivated 

 Mysore variety. The short-branched rhizome is 

 creamy white in colour, with deep pink mark- 

 ings. In the illustration a bulb bearing two 

 aerial steirs is shown, one of which is folded to 

 give some idea of its length by comparison with 

 a scale (the smallest section of which is equiva- 

 lent to 1 in.). The lance-head shaped leaves 

 vary from 1 to 3 ft. in length and are from 3 to 

 6 in. wide, while their bases are sheathing. 

 Below the stem on the left are seen two adven- 

 titious buds, which would have produced new 

 aerial stems. The flowers are borne in loose in- 

 florescences (racemes) on stalks some 16 to 18 

 in. long, which grow out close to the ground, 

 being usually thrown out in the full-grown plant 

 in groups of four to each aerial stem. Each 

 raceme may have eight to fourteen branches, 

 each with three to six flowers. The green calyx 

 tube of the flower is 1£ in. long. The pale green 

 corolla lobes are half an inch long, narro-v and 

 spreading, the white lip being two-thirds of an 

 inch long, and bearing violet purple streaks 

 radiating from the centre. The fruits, which 

 ripen successively, are also shown. They are 

 three-celled, each cell containing several aro- 

 matic seeds. They open by three valves when 

 ripe. The seeds are irregularly angular and 

 transversely wrinkled. The fully grown plants 

 frequently attain a height of 15 ft. or more. 



Fig. 2 shows the more slender native wild 

 cardamom of Ceylon (Elettaria Cardamomum, 

 yar. 3 major) in a fruiting condition. 



Coltivation. 

 In India the home of cardamoms is the wes- 

 tern slopes of the mountains of the Malabar 

 coast, where there is a mean rainfall of 121 in. 

 and a mean temperature of 72° F. The plant, 

 which revels in moist localities, is commonly 

 met growing wild in the west shady mountain- 

 furests of Canara, Cochin, and Travancore, 

 being indigenous between the altitude of 2,500 

 to 5,000 ft. The wild plant bears but short in- 

 florescences, which become only sparsely fruited. 

 In the States of Cochin and Travancore freer 

 development is allowed by cutting and burning 

 the brushwood of the jungle, while in the Coorg 

 forests the natives practise a more systematic 



kind of cultivation as given balow. The cultiva- 

 tion of the plant in the forests of the Anamalais, 

 the Pulneys, and the Wynaad facing the Mala- 

 bar coast is also in the hands of natives and of 

 an indifferent character. The cardamom plant 

 is best suited to a rich loamy soil, which is kept 

 ruoiht (but not wet) at all seasons, and is protec- 

 ted from strong winds. These conditions are 

 met with in the betel-nut plantations or pepper- 

 gardens of Mysore and of Canara, as also in the 

 cultivated cardamom valleys of Ceylon. The 

 plant will grow luxuriantly on stiff clayey soil, 

 but it produces but little or co fruit under these 

 conditions. At the best the plant is capricious 

 in regard to fruiting. 



In Coorg the Forest Department leases plots 

 for fourteen to twenty -one years, and here the 

 simplest of the effective modes of cultivation is 

 followed. In February or March the cultivators 

 set out for the shady evergreen forests and 

 mountain-sides, and begin to make small clear- 

 ings of about a square chain in extent, there 

 being about four to an acre. A space of some 

 20 to 30 yards of jungle is left between each gar- 

 den. Half the party cut down the small trees, 

 and brushwood, the remainder felling the large 

 trees. Selection of a suitable site is aided by 

 the presence of seedling growths of cardamoms, 

 but tradition and superstition also play a part. 

 For instance, the presence of such plants as 

 ebony, nutmeg, or pepper is held to be highly 

 favourable. Felling of trees for shaking the 

 ground must be done on certain days of the 

 week, and be completed before noon, A party 

 of ten men can, on an average, make five gardens 

 a day, and generally some* fifty or hundred gar- 

 dens are made annually until the whole jungle 

 is under cultivation. Too many gardens lead to 

 an injurious decrease in the amount of avail- 

 able moisture Following the early rains of the 

 monsoon, the dormant seeds germinate, and 



