CHAP. X 
CARDAMOMS 
325 
spathulate, clawed with waved margins, pure white with 
violet-purple streaks radiating from the centre. The 
fruit is globose, ovoid, or oblong, more or less three-sided 
and slightly ribbed, pale buff when ripe. It splits into 
three valves of a thin papery texture, each cell of the 
fruit containing 5 to 7 dark brown aromatic seeds. The 
seeds are about 2 lines long, irregularly angular, and 
transversely wrinkled. There is a good deal of variation 
in the size and form of the fruit, and they are sorted in 
commerce according to their forms. 
There are two distinct forms or varieties of the 
plant, viz. var. minus, the Malabar cardamom, a 
taller plant with narrower and less firm leaves and 
globose fruits from to in. long, greyish yellow or 
buff in colour. This is confined to Southern India. 
Var. majus with shorter stems, broader leaves and 
oblong fruit, from 1 to 2 in. long, and rather narrower 
than the Malabar fruit, distinctly three-sided, often 
arched and dark greyish brown when dry, the seeds 
larger and more numerous, and less aromatic. This is 
the Ceylon cardamom, and is peculiar to that country. 
(This variety of cardamom must not be confused with 
the Cardamomum majus of Arabia, a name applied by 
some old writers to Amomum Korarima, a native of 
Africa and a very different plant.) 
Mr. T. C. Owen, in his Notes on Cardamom Cultiva- 
tion in Ceylon, mentions three varieties which he calls 
the indigenous Ceylon, the Malabar, and the Mysore. 
He says that the easiest method of distinguishing the 
first two is by the colour of the stem, which in 
the Malabar plant is green or whitish at the base, 
while that of the Ceylon form is distinguished by a 
pink tinge deeply marked at the base, and more or less 
traceable up the leaf-stalk for the whole way (presum- 
ably he means the leafy stem). This character forms 
an excellent one for selecting seedlings. 
The Mysore form is known by its robust habit, 
larger and coarser leaves of a darker green, hard and 
smooth on the under surface, and not soft and velvetv. 
