386 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
CULTIVATION 
Coriander is cultivated from seed as an annual. It 
is sown broadcast in sandj loam, or black soil. The 
sowing takes place in the cold or rainy season ; sown 
in October, it ripens in J anuary ; occasionally sown 
in the month of June, ripening in September as a 
garden crop. When the weather is dry, it requires 
watering. No particular care seems to be taken with 
it. The fruits are merely gathered and dried. 
The system of cultivation in Essex, England, used to 
be as follows : — The seed was sown with caraways, 
but, being an annual, was gathered the first year, the 
caraways being left in the ground. The seedling plants 
were hoed, so as to leave those that remained in rows 
10 to 12 in. apart. In the autumn it was cut with 
sickles, and thrashed out on a cloth in the field. On 
the best land 1 5 cwt. per acre was a good crop. 
In India, the fruit is rubbed in the hand till the 
two mericarps are separated, and sown broadcast. It 
germinates about the third day, and only requires 
weeding once or twice. It fruits in about four weeks. 
It is then pulled up and beaten with sticks on the floor 
or trodden by bullocks. It is dried in the sun for a 
day or two, and packed in bags. 
It sells in Singapore for 3 or 4 cents per lb., and 
there is a large demand for it, as it is an essential 
ingredient in curries. 
DILL 
Dill, commonly known in the East Indies as cake 
seed, is the fruit of Peucedanum graveolens, L., an 
annual herb of the order Umbelliferae. The stem is 
from 1 to 3 ft. tall, slightly branched, finely striated. 
The leaves are stalked with the petiole flattened, the 
blade tripinnate or even more cut up with very fine 
segments, narrow, and light green. The small yellow 
flowers are borne in long-stalked umbels, 2 to 4 in. 
across. The fruit is about ^ in. long or less, broadly 
