this first effort of nature is generally scanty : for instance, only one half of what is reaped the following 
year, and only one-fourth of what is yielded after the sixth rains, at which period the plant has reached its 
acme of prolific vigour. Now and then, however, this routine is interrupted*, and its progress protracted, 
by causes of which they are not very solicitous to investigate the nature ; they remark, however, excessive 
and interrupted rains to be one source of failure.” 
Mr. White, to whom we are indebted for the preceding account of the natural history of this plant 
and its cultivation, under the name of Amomum Cardamomum, in Trans, of Lin. Soc. vol. x. speaks of the 
seed as amongst the most important articles in modern luxury, and as “ a grateful and salubrious necessary 
of diet.” Its general use in Asia, indeed, renders the plant a very important and profitable object of cul- 
ture, though the harvest, occuring at the most unhealthy season, is not unattended by serious dangers. 
Fevers, fluxes, the bite of innumerable minute leeches, (Hirudo geometra ,) and the instantly fatal sting of 
the whipsnake, are mentioned as not uncommon mischiefs ; to which is added the caustic quality of a 
shrubby plant, called by the native Mouricha, whose botanical characters have not been ascertained, but 
whose leaves produce dangerous and sometimes fatal ulcers of the skin. The profit of the Cardamom farms, 
however, is so considerable as to overcome all difficulties in their cultivation, and Mr. White thinks they 
might easily be greatly extended. 
What the cardamom of the ancients was, it is now scarcely possible to determine. It is extremely 
probable, however, as Dr. Maton justly observes, that the article bearing that name in their materia medica, 
was not the common cardamom of our shops. The plant producing it was not satisfactorily made known, 
until the publication of the Hortus Malabaricus, in which the delineation of it is sufficiently striking. 
From the mistake made by Burmann, in referring to Bontius’s Java (p. 126) for the true cardamom, appears 
to have originated the erroneous description and discordant references, on the subject of the cardamom in 
the works of Linnaeus; the latter illustrious author having confounded the Javanese cardamom, Amomum 
compactum of Solander, with that of Malabar. In Java the plant grows wild in the woods, and is there 
called kapaluga, but its produce is much inferior to that of the Malabar cardamom. The plant is a native 
of Sumatra and other islands to the eastward of the bay of Bengal, and was sent, according to Dr. Rox- 
burgh, (Flora Indica, p. 37,) to the botanical garden at Calcutta, where it blossoms in April. Dr. Francis 
Hamilton, in his Account of the Kingdom of Nepal, mentions a large fruited species of cardamom (Amo- 
mum ?) which he found growing there, hitherto undescribed by botanists. The plant producing the greater 
cardamom seeds of commerce or Grains of Paradise, is the Amomum Grana Paradisi of Linnaeus. 
The officinal cardamoms are brought to this country from Bengal in cases, each containing about 
1201 bs weight. The seeds are dried and imported in their capsules, by which their flavour is better preserved. 
Qualities. — These seeds have an extremely grateful aromatic odour, and a warm pungent taste. 
They communicate all their virtues to alcohol and ether, and nearly so to water. In distillation they afford 
an essential oil, which is pungent to the taste, and in this seems to reside all the active qualities. The 
watery infusion has a turbid appearance, and lets fall a flocculent precipitate, on the addition of alcohol, the 
acids, solutions of sulphate of iron, muriate of mercury, and acetate of lead ; but the sulphate of iron does 
not alter its colour. The alcoholic tincture is rendered milky by water. The ethereal has a yellowish green 
hue, and, when evaporated on the surface of water, leaves neither resin nor extractive, but a considerable 
portion of essential oil, which has the flavour and taste of the seeds in perfection. Cardamoms, therefore, 
seem to be entirely composed of fecula, mucus, and essential oil. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — Cardamom seeds have been long employed in medicine as a 
valuable cordial, carminative, and stomachic. They afford a grateful warm aromatic, less heating and stimu- 
lant than many of the other species, and are, perhaps, on this account better adapted for general use. They 
enter into several of the officinal preparations, and are frequently combined with bitters in dyspeptic cases, 
or with purgatives, to obviate flatulence and griping. In India these seeds are highly prized as an agreeable 
condiment, and their use as such is so universal, that they are now regarded as a necessary of life by most 
of the natives of Asia. 
There are two tinctures of cardamoms in the British pharmacopoeia, viz. a simple and a compound tinc- 
ture ; the first named, Tinctura Cardamomi, prepared by digesting for eight days three ounces of the bruised 
seeds in two pints of proof spirit. It possesses all the virtues of the seeds, and maybe given in doses of one 
drachm to three. The other, named Tinctura Cardamomi composita, (formerly called Tinctura stomachica,) 
prepared by digesting for fourteen days two drachms of the cardamom seeds, two drachms of carraway seeds, 
two drams of cochineal, half an ounce of cinnamon, and four ounces of stoned raisins, in two pints of proof 
spirit. It would be an improvement in this preparation, as Dr. R. Pearson justly observes, if the propor- 
tion of cardamom seeds were increased, and if, instead of four ounces of raisins, one ounce of pulverized 
sugar-candy were to be added, after the digestion is over. Both these tinctures are often ordered in 
stomachic infusions, and joined with ether, opium, and other antispasmodics, and in gouty and spasmodic 
affections of the stomach. Among all the aromatics,” says Dr. Parr, “there are none that answer so 
well, in general, as this simple tincture, for rendering mineral waters and other saline solutions easy and 
agreeable to the stomach.” 
Dose. — The dose in powder is fromgrs. v. to 9i. 
