134 
COMMERCIAL VARIETIES OF GINGER. 
they could obtain only from 155. to 20s. per cwt. for ginger, 
while their Malabar competitors got from 75s. to 100s. per 
cwt., were aroused to compete with the latter. They ac- 
cordingly, as I am informed, began to cultivate the new 
Malabar plant, or, as it was called, the Tellicherry sort. 
In consequence, large quantities of this new Bengal sort 
were soon after received from Calcutta, and, being very 
large and bold in the race, captivated the buyers, who pur- 
chased freely at from £5 to £7 per cwt. But upon being 
brought into use it was found to be destitute of those intrin- 
sically good qualities for which the new Malabar ginger 
was distinguished. It accordingly fell in price to 35s. or 
40s. per cwt., and the original purchasers suffered a loss of 
at least 50 per cent. It is now scarcely met with. 
This kind of ginger is imported in chests of 1^ cwt. It 
is a scraped sort, and is darker than Jamaica ginger. It is 
as plump as the new Malabar sort, but the races are not so 
large. To the cut it is more or less hard or flinty and dark. 
In its color and hardness it resembles the common or coat- 
ed Bengal sort; but in plumpness, the uncoated Malabar 
sort. 
3. African Ginger. 
5. Sierra Leone Ginger. — All the African ginger 
which I have met with has been imported from Sierra 
Leone. It comes over in casks or bags. 
It is a coated or unscraped sort. The races are generally 
rather larger, but less plump, than those of the Barbadoes 
sort, which in other respects they resemble, and to which they 
are about equal in commercial value. 
4. China Ginger. 
Mr. F. Bassermann has described a new sort of ginger 
from China. This is quite unknown in the English market 
indeed I cannot find that any of even the most experienced 
dealers ever heard of China dried ginger.* As, however, 
• I have hoard Cochin Ginger called by mistake Cochin-China Gin- 
ger t and for brevity China ginger. 
