Ball — On the Colloquies of Garcia Be Orta. 411 
they bore no fruit there, being only productive in the Moluccas.^ There 
are two varieties, the smaller of which is pulled and dried when 
formed, and the larger, called Madre do cravo, is allowed to ripen on 
the tree. The stalks of the flower-heads are called fuste by the 
Spanish, and castum by the Portuguese. Called cravo because it is in 
the form of a nail. The tree takes eight years to mature, and lasts, it is 
said, 100 years. The crop is gathered from the middle of September 
to January, and into February. The inhabitants of the Moluccas do 
not themselves use it. It was first made known by Chinese traders to 
India, Persia, and Arabia. 
[References. — Clusius (Acosta), p. 31, fig. ; Zi?ischofen,i>T^. 67-81 ; 
Fiso, Mantissa Aromatica, pp. 177, 179, figs. ; Ainslie, p. 75 ; Fluchiger 
and Hanhury^ p. 249 ; Khory, p. 308. 
COLLOQUY XXVI. 
Do Gengivee. 
[Of Ginger — The root of Zingiber officinale, Eoscoe.] 
Called gengihil {zangelilarataha) by the Arabs, Persians, and 
Turks ; adrac {adrahd) when green, and sucte when dry by the Guja- 
ratis, Deccanis, and Bengalis ; imgi by the Malabars ; alia in Malaya 
(Borneo ?). 
Garcia says that it is a plant like the flag or marsh-lily, &c. A 
variety cultivated at Bagaim (Bassein) is less pungent than the ordi- 
I nary kind, the land there being more humid. Largely used in food, 
I it is chiefly cultivated in Malabar, which kind the Persians and Arabs 
I prefer; but it also comes from Dabul and Bengal, besides Bassein 
and other places along the Western Coast ; but there is very little . 
in the interior. It is also found in the Comoro Islands and Mada- 
gascar, and in Troglodita and Ethiopia, but not in Arabia. It is col- 
lected in December and January, and is covered with clay to stop the 
pores and preserve it from rotting and being attacked by worms. 
Garcia points out many mistakes in the descriptions of this plant by 
Dioscorides, Serapion, Mesne, &c. 
[References. — Clusius (Acosta), p. 50; Fiso, Mantissa Aromatica, 
p. 189, fig. Ainslie, i., p. 152 ; Fluchiger and Sanhury, p. 574 ; 
Khory, p. 518.] 
^ Though originally only indigenous to the five islands of the Molucca Group, it 
is now found in Amboyna, Sumatra, Penang, Malacca, Mascarene Islands, Zanzibar, 
iPemba Island, and the West Indies. See Fluchiger and Eanbury, "Pharmaco- 
; graphia," p. 250. 
