XIV 
TURMERIC 
439 
April 1910, at 25 cents U.S.Cy. per lb. The root has 
a musky odour, which is not appreciated as an adjunct 
to curries. As, however, the plant is commonly grown 
with turmeric, I include it here. 
GALANGAL 
There are two spice plants known as galangal, the 
lesser and the greater galangal. Both are species of 
the genus Alpinia, viz. Alpinia officinarum, Hance, 
and Alpinia Galanga, L. The former is the lesser 
galangal, and is the most important of the two. 
THE LESSER GALANGAL 
Alpinia officinarum, Hance [Scitamineae). — This 
plant, which belongs to the same order as the ginger, is 
a herb with smooth, cylindrical, reddish brown rhizomes, 
about Y f through, covered with large pale 
sheaths, which leave a scar when fallen. The stems are 
2 to 4 ft. tall, with numerous narrowly lanceolate 
acuminate, sheathing leaves, the blade 9 to 14 in. long. 
The flowers are arranged in a terminal raceme 3 or 4 in. 
long, of a medium size and white, with narrow petals 
and an ovate, entire, or bilobed lip, with a crisp or 
denticulate edge, f in. long, white, with dark-red veins 
coalescing into a fan-shaped spot near the tip. The 
fruit is ^ in. long, brown, tomentose. 
The part of this plant which is used is the rhizome, 
and though the spice has been known for very many 
centuries, the plant itself was only discovered in 1867. 
It was first found by Mr. Sampson at Tung-sai, on the 
peninsula of Lei Chan-fu, at the extreme south of China, 
opposite to Hoihow in Hainan, but apparently only an 
escape from cultivation. It was discovered later by 
Colonel Swinhoe, wild, in Hainan itself. 
History. — The earliest reference to this spice is that 
of the Arabian geographer Ibn Khurdabah, who wrote a 
work on the products and tributes of the Khalibs in a.d. 
