46 
ON THE COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF GINGER. 
branched, lobed, palmate pieces, called hands or races. The 
largest rarely exceed four inches in length. The larger, bolder, 
and plumper the races, the more they are esteemed in commerce. 
Some of the commercial sorts have not been deprived of their 
epidermis, which is dried on them, and give the races a shrivelled 
character. Other sorts have been carefully scraped and peeled 
while in the green state. The first are said to be coated or un- 
scraped ; the second uncoated, or decorticated, or scraped. Con- 
sidered with respect to the presence or absence of the coat, the 
commercial sorts of ginger may be thus arranged : — 
Uncoated or Scraped. 
Jamaica Ginger 
New Malabar do. 
New Bengal do. 
Coated or Unscraped. 
Barbados Ginger 
Old Malabar do. 
Old Bengal do. 
African do. 
Although the colour of ginger is an important consideration in 
determining the commercial value of this root, it is difficult to de- 
scribe in words the different colours which characterise the various 
commercial sorts of ginger. The terms white and black ginger 
formerly in use merely mean that some sorts are paler or whiter, 
others darker or blacker ; but absolutely white or black ginger 
is of course unknown. The different sorts of ginger pass almost 
insensibly from the one into the other, so that it is impossible to 
refer them absolutely to the pale or dark sorts. Mr. Faber tells 
me that, were he to classify them according to their external colour, 
it would be thus: — 
Grey or Dark . Intermediate. Bright Yellow or Pale. 
Old Bengal Barbados Jamaica 
New Bengal Old Malabar New Malabar. 
African. 
The internal colour of ginger and its softness or hardness, as ob- 
served by cutting it, is another important character. The brighter 
and paler the colour, and the softer the texture, the more highly is 
ginger valued. Ginger which is dark and hard, or flinty to the 
cut, is of inferior value. A transverse section of the larger and 
more perfect pieces shews an outer, horny, resinous-looking zone, 
surrounding a farinaceous centre, which has a speckled appearance 
from the cut extremities of the fibres and cuts. 
VARIETIES. — Several varieties of ginger are met within English 
commerce. These we may conveniently arrange, according to the 
countries producing them, in three classes: 1st, West Indian; 
2dly, East Indian ; 3dly, African. 
