GINGER. 
147 
and will cause pain if you happen to crack the 
shell in your mouth. This oil is sometimes used 
to cure corns^ warts, and sores, but it must be 
used with great care. 
8. When the kernel is fresh it is full of a sweety 
milky juice, and has a very nice taste; when 
older it is mostly roasted before it is eaten, and 
is used instead of almonds. 
GINGER.— I. 
1. The ginger plant has an underground stem 
which thickens out in such a way that you might 
easily mistake it for a root, unless you noticed 
the leaf-buds upon it. The real roots, however, 
are the threads or fibres given off* by this under- 
ground stem, which is often called the root-stock. 
It is for the sake of its root-stock that the ginger 
plant is grown. 
2. Like the banana it has long, pointed leaves, 
whose ribs run side by side, and whose lower 
parts sheath round the stem, thus building it up. 
3. To raise fresh plants, a root-stock is cut into 
small pieces, each of which must have a shoot- 
bud upon it. These are dropped into small holes, 
about a foot apart, and the ground is then covered 
thickly with dead leaves, straw, and manure, to 
keep the young cuttings moist and cool. 
