ON GRAINS OF PARADISE. 
97 
name of the Madagascar cardamom. I have recently re- 
ceived specimens of this fruit under the name of Carda- 
moms from Abyssinia, from Professor Royle. The seeds 
have an agreeable aromatic flavor, and are totally devoid of 
that excessively hot acrid taste which is so characteristic of 
the Melligetta pepper, or Grains of Paradise brought from 
Guinea, 
3. Gaertner* has figured the fruit and seeds of a scita- 
mineous plant under the name of Zingiber Me Ixguet a, and 
which he considered to be identical with the Grains of 
Paradise. The seeds, however, are readily distinguished 
from the real Grains of Paradise by their leaden color, and 
their slightly aromatic flavor. Several capsules, in very 
good preservation, are contained in the Sloanian collection 
of fruits in the British Museum. According to Sir James 
Edward Smith,t the plant which yields them is a native of 
Sierra Leone, and is called by the natives maboobo. He 
terms it A mo mum macrospermum, or the large-seeded 
Guinea amomum. 
4. There is occasionally imported into this country a 
scitamineous fruit known by the name of the Java carda- 
mom. It is the Cardamome fausse maniguette of Gui- 
bourt4 My friend, Dr. Royle, informs me that at Saharun- 
pore it is called Bura Elachee. or great cardamom, while 
in the Calcutta market it is known as the Bengal carda- 
mom. Ainslie§ calls its seeds greater seeds of cardamoms, 
and gives as synonymes Burrie Eelatchy,dind Desi Elachi 
[country cardamoms.) The former of these terms agrees 
with that assigned to these fruits by my friend, Dr. Royle. 
Ainslie appears to consider these seeds as identical with 
Grains of Paradise, and accordingly refers them to the 
* De fructibus et seminibus plantarura. 
f Rees' Cyclopaedia, vol. xxxix. 
\ Hist, des Drogues. 
§ Materia Indica, vol. i. p. 54, 5. 
