87 
it is described as having been so in Egypt. In the 
same family with the Ginger, is the Cardamom plant, 
Elettaria or Alpinia Cardamomum, found only in the 
mountains of the Malabar coast. It has been doubted 
whether our Cardamoms are those which were known to 
the ancients, and of which several kinds are mentioned by 
Pliny by this name. They have been considered such 
from the time of the Arabs, who describe them under the 
names of kakleh and khyrboa, and distinguish the large 
from the small kind. They also keep distinct their trans- 
lation of kirdamana, the cardaminen or Sisymbrium 
alterum of Dioscorides, which has been confounded with 
Cardamoms by some of the older commentators. 
There is a produce of this family which one is 
surprised was not known to the Greeks. This is Turmeric, 
or the tubers of Curcuma longa, so universally employed, 
and apparently from the highest antiquity, both as a 
medicine and as a condiment, in every part of India. 
The Latin name is evidently derived from kurkum, the. 
Persian name for saffron, Ar. xafran. Some authors, 
indeed, suppose that the ancient saffron was turmeric. 
This, by the Arabs, is called arook-al-safr, or yellow root. 
The French formerly called it Terra-merita (Curcuma, 
haec Gallis Terra merita male dicitur), and the Portuguese 
Saffran da Terra, as well as Crocus indicus. Some 
have supposed Turmeric to be the Cyperus indicus of 
Dioscorides, and his description in some measure warrants 
the inference, as Pliny, apparently copying the passage, 
says, " Est et per se Indica herba, qua? cyperis vocatur, 
zingiberis effig-ie : commanducata croci vino reddit. 11 From 
the colour and form, this root would appear to have been 
known to the ancients, as, indeed, must have been inferred 
by the Arabians, who give, as its Greek synonyme, 
khaldoonion tomagha, evidently a corruption of xemSowo* 
