Ball — On the Colloquies of Garcia Be Orta. 399 
Garcia says it is given medicinally, in diet, in fevers, and that from 
the juice a collyrium is prepared for dimness of vision. Many people 
find the taste pleasant, especially of those called agras doces, on account 
of their great acidity. An agreeable conserve is made of them with 
sugar, and he was in the habit of ordering it instead of acetous syrup. 
He explains in this as well as in other colloquies that the names for 
various Indian products, which had been adopted by the Portuguese, 
were derived from those in use in Malabar, because it was on that 
coast, at Cochin and elsewhere, that they first established themselves 
in India. 
[Eeferences. — Clusius (Acosta), p. 73 ; Zinschoten, ii., pp. 33, 34 ; 
Bontius and Fiso, lib. vi., p. 102, fig. ; Drury, Useful Flaiits, p. 56.] 
COLLOQIFY XIII. 
(i.) — De Dtjas Maneihas de Caedamomo (2) e Caeandas. 
(i.) — The two varieties of Cardamom, Cardamomo maior e wienor 
[i.e. the great and little Cardamom]. 
[The fruit of JElettaria cardamomum, Maton.] 
Thames — CacuUa quehir (i.e. qaqolla haMr)^ the large var., and 
caculla ceguer [qaqolla gaghir), the small var., Arab. ; etremelly 
ielattari) in Malabar ; luqal in Ceylon ; Ml and elacM by the Moors 
in Eengal, Gujarat, and the Deccan ; and dore by the Gentoos 
(Hindus) of the same regions. 
Garcia maintains that neither the Greeks nor Romans knew this 
drug, which he deduces from the fact that the descriptions of car- 
damomum by Galen, Dioscorides, and Pliny, do not agree with its 
characters. He says it is sown like our peas, and the tallest kind is 
about a covado (cubit) in height, and the pods which hang from it 
contain from 10 to 20 grains. Both varieties, he states, are found in 
India ; principally in Calicut as far as Cananor and other parts of 
Malabar, and in Java. An especially large kind, but less aromatic, 
was produced in Ceylon and was carried to Hormuz and Arabia as 
merchandise. 
Its principal use, according to Garcia, was for chewing with betel, 
but it was also used in the manufacture of syrups. 
This chapter is principally occupied with a discussion as to the 
confusion about this drug in the works of writers, both ancient and 
modern, whom Garcia criticises somewhat severely. 
