Chap. 30.] THE COUNTRY Or TRAmCIN CENSE. 
123 
in order to make the leaves adhere and form clusters, like 
those of the grape. 
There is another substance, also, which is known by the 
name of amomis;^^ it is not so full of veins as amomum, 
harder, and not so odoriferous ; from which it would appear, 
either that it is altogether a different plant, or else that it is 
amomum gathered in an unripe state. 
CHAP. 29. — CARDAMOMUM. 
Similar to these substances, both in name as well as the 
shrub which produces it, is the cardamomum,^^ the seeds of 
which are of an oblong shape. It is gathered in the same 
manner both in India and Arabia. There are four different 
kinds of cardamomura. That which is of a very green colour, 
unctuous, with sharp angles, and very difficult to break, is tho 
most highly esteemed of all. The next best is of a reddish 
white tint, while that of third-rate quality is shorter and 
blacker, the worst of all being mottled and friable, and emit- 
ting but little smell ; which, in its genuine state ought to be 
very similar to costum. Cardamomum grows also in Media. 
The price of the best is three denarii per pound. 
CHAP. 30. THE COTOTET OF FEANKINCENSE. 
!N"ext in affinity to cardamomum would have been cinnamo- 
mum,^^ and this we should have now proceeded to speak of, were 
it not more convenient first to make mention of the treasures 
of Arabia, and the reasons for which that country has received 
the names of Happy'' and *'Elest." The chief productions 
of Arabia are frankincense and myrrh, which last it bears in 
Supposed to have been only the Amomum, in an unripe state, as Pliny 
himself suggests. 
^2 Still known in pharmacy as " cardamum." It is not, however, as 
Pliny says, found in Arabia, but in India ; from which it probably reached 
the Greeks and Romans by way of the Eed Sea. There are three kinds 
known in modern commerce, the large, the middle size, and the small. 
M. Bonastre, " Journal de Pharmacie," May, 1828, is of opinion, that the 
word cardamomum signifies amomum in pods," the Egyptian kardh 
meaning "pod," or "husk." It is, however, more generally supposed, 
that the Greek word, icapdioy " heart," enters into its composition. 
93 "Yerus" seems a preferable reading here to "vero," which has been 
adopted by Sillig. 
See c. 42 of the present Book. 
