328 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
sphere, or copious rains for three-fourths of the year, 
and an exposure admitting but a limited proportion of 
sunbeams are the circumstances which the natives tell 
us, and experience proves, are most favourable to its 
growth, and are the sole requisite for an abundant 
crop/’ 
Owen says of the Ceylon cultivation : “ Fine, rich, 
loamy soil is absolutely essential for the successful 
growth of cardamoms, and this is usually found in the 
situations most favourable to their growth — sheltered 
moist hollows. The plants will grow on ridges and in 
inferior soil, but their fruiting powers are but small 
and their growth stunted. It is, therefore, unadvisable 
to plant large blocks with them, as a considerable pro- 
portion of the land cannot fail to be unsuitable. The 
most successful method is to devote the banks of streams 
and damp hollows alone to cardamom cultivation, 
planting the ridges and all exposed or poor land with 
some hardier product.” Very damp spots, waterlogged 
or periodically flooded, will not suit the plant. Stiff* 
clayey soil is equally unsatisfactory. In such places, 
though they may grow luxuriantly, they will give but 
little fruit. 
Climate and Altitude . — The plant is strictly a 
tropical one, but seems never to have been very suc- 
cessful south of Latitude 7° nor north of Latitude 25°. 
It requires a hot, rainy region, with a rainfall of 100 
to 121 in. a year, and a mean temperature of 72° Fahr. 
The Indian varieties are found indigenous at an altitude 
of between 2,500 ft. and 5,000 ft. The Ceylon variety 
occurs chiefly in the low country. It has not been 
successful in the low country of the Malay peninsula, 
which is farther south, and has a truly equatorial 
climate, with heavy and continuous rains, and a some- 
what higher mean temperature. 
At the higher elevations the plants take longer to 
come into bearing and seem very backward for a year 
or two, but when they come into bearing fruit freely, 
says Owen. The robust Mysore variety grows and 
