ZINGIBER OFFICINALE. NARROW-LEAVED GINGER. 
Class First* MONANDRIA. — Order First* MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order, SCITAMINEiE. THE GINGER TRIBE. 
The Ginger plant is a native of the East Indies, and of various parts of Asia, but is now extensively cul- 
tivated in the warmer parts of America, and in the West Indian Islands, from whence it is chiefly imported 
into Europe. It is a stove plant in England, flowering in September, and is said to have been raised here 
by Edward Lord Zouch, before the year 1605. 
The root stake is perennial, tuberous, fleshy, of a compressed roundish form, covered with an ash- 
coloured tegument, and sending off many stout fibres. The whole herb is smooth, and partakes of the 
hot, gratefully aromatic flavor of the root. 
The rhizomata of all the Zingiberaceee contain feecula, which, however, is rendered unfit for ordinary 
! food, and can only be used as a condiment, by the quantity of pungent, resinous, and aromatic oily matter 
I it contains ; in some, however, as Curcuma angustifolia, the spicy flavor is lessened, and from it an excel- 
lent kind of arrow-root is prepared. 
The Greek name for ginger, Ziyyi/3 so, is evidently derived from Zungebeel, its Persian appellation ; 
and as it is indigenous at Gingi in China, it is supposed by some persons to have obtained its English 
name from that place, although zingiber and ginger are so much alike, that the one might be assumed to 
be a derivative of the other. 
Ginger is a native of many eastern countries, but it is no where to be found, says Ainslie, of a finer 
quality than on the coast of Malabar. It is the ischi of the Hort. Malab. (11. p. 21. t. 12,) and the 
zingiber majus of Rumphius (Herbarium Amboinense, pars 5. p. 156. t. 66. f. 1.) 
This plant was introduced into New Spain by Francisco de Mendoza ; from whence it was carried to 
the West Indian Islands, where it grows so plentifully, particularly in Jamaica, even in a wild state, as to 
' induce a belief that it was indigenous to the soil. Since its introduction into Jamaica, it has become an 
article of considerable export; for which purpose it is generally cultivated. It is calculated that about one 
million pounds of it are annually consumed in Europe. 
Ginger was known in England in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, as Gerarde says, “Our men which sacked 
Domingo in the Indies digged vp ginger there in sundry places wilde.” He adds, “Ginger groweth in 
Spaine, in the Canarie Islands, and the Azores. It is most impatient of these our northern regions, as 
myself haue found by proofs ; for that there haue been brought vnto me at seuerall times, sundry plants 
thereof, fresh, greene, and full of iuice, as well from the West Indies, as from Barbarie, and other 
places ; which haue sprouted and budded forth greene leaves in my garden in the heate of somer : but as 
soon as it hath bin but touched with the first sharp blast of winter, it hath presently perished, both blade 
and roote.” 
The plant appears to have been known in London about the year 1566-7, and was evidently introduced 
by the Dutch ; as Gerarde states that about thirty years or more, before he published his account, (1597,) 
“ an honest and expert apothecarie William Dries, to satisfie my desire, sent me from Antwerpe to Lon- 
don, the picture of ginger, because I was not ignorant that there had been oft ginger rootes brought green, 
