ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



[Bombay. 



About H candies of an inferior quality are procured from Y T elater, which 

 are sold at about hall" the price of the others. Many merchants, by looking 

 at cardamums, can tell the country whence they came. Those from 

 Wynaad, including those also of Cartinaad and Tamaratchery, contain 

 many round, full white grains, or capsules. Those of Coorg have fewer 

 black, or light ones. The Velater sort are long, dark coloured, and thin 

 skinned. Cardamums are never garbled, except for the Europe market; 

 they are exported chiefly to Bengal, Bombay, Surat, Cutch, and the differ- 

 ent ports in Arabia. Cardamums should be chosen full, plump, and 

 difficult to be broken, of a bright yellow colour* of a piercing smell, with 

 an acrid, bitterish, though not very unpleasant taste, and particular care 

 should be taken that they are properly dried. They are reckoned to keep 

 best in a body ; and are therefore packed in large chests well-jointed, pitched 

 at the seams, and otherwise properly secured, as the least damp greatly 

 reduces their value. Freight 12 Cwt. to the ton. 



Greater Cardamums. — This kind is produced on Ceylon, Java, and in 

 some other parts of the East. The pods are large and long, triangular, 

 thick-skinned, and dark -coloured, some approaching nearly to black ; the 

 smell is less acrid, and the taste nauseous and disagreeable, not the least 

 resembling that of the Malabar cardamums. These have occasionally been 

 imported into England, but are not esteemed. 



Chaya Root is a small root (of the Oldenlandia Umbellata) from 15 

 to 2o inches long, very slender, with few fibres, cultivated on the Coasts 

 of Malabar and Coromandel, and other parts of India. It is useil in dying 

 red, purple, a deep clear brown, and to paint the red figures on Chintz. 

 The woody part of the ciiaya root is white and tasteless ; it is the bark only 

 which is possessed of the colouring principle, When fresh, it is orange 

 coloured, tinges the saliva yellow, and leaves a slight degree of acrimony on 

 the point of the tongue for some hours after chewing. To appearance it 

 loses its yellow colour in drying, but still retains the above property on 

 being chewed. It impregnates cold water or spirits with a straw colour, 

 and to boiling water it gives a brownish porter colour. The colouring 

 powers of the root are said to be improved by keeping three or four years. 

 When the wild sort can be obtained, it is preferred ; and if to be had of 

 two years' growth, it is reckoned still better. It is not esteemed by the 

 English dyera. 



Coco Nuts. — This commodity is an article of considerable trade, in 

 various branches, in all parts of India— the kernel, the husk of the nut, of 

 which coir is made ; and the oil which is expressed from the kernel. It is 

 the produce of the Coqos Nucifera, a palm common throughout India. It 



