506 TURMERIC. 
Upwards of twenty species have been introduced 
to the hothouses of Britain, principally from the 
Indian Continent and the Indian Archipelago. 
All are handsome in floriculture, and several are 
cultivated in the Hast for their uses in medicine 
and the arts. One, the broad-leaved, is com- 
monly about 12 feet high; and another, the re- 
clinate, is seldom more than about 6 inches high ; 
and nearly all the rest have a height of between 
1 foot and 5 feet. Most have either yellow, red, 
or red and yellow flowers; and the rest have 
either pink, crimson, brown, or white and violet 
flowers. A few, such as the zedoary, the zerum- 
bet, the rubescent, and the rusty, love a soil of 
rich mould; but the others thrive best in sandy 
loam; and all, except the reclinate, are most 
readily propagated by division of the root. 
The long-rooted turmeric, or zedoary-root tur- 
meric, Curcuma longa, grows wild in the open 
sandy grounds of Malabar and Ceylon, and was 
introduced to Britain in 1759. Its root is tuber- 
ous, oblong, whitish, about as thick as a man’s 
finger, and studded with the vestiges of defunct 
fleshy fibres; its leaves are subsessile on their 
sheath, palmated, broad, lanceolate, green above, 
and leathery below; its flower-stem rises from 
among the leaves, and is naked, and has com- 
monly a height of about two feet ; and its flowers 
grow in a loose, lateral, cylindrical, truncated 
spike, and bloom in April and May. The roots 
are imported into Britain, in casks and cases, 
from Bengal, China, and Ceylon. The best are 
firm, short, wrinkled, heavy, free from worm- 
eating, externally of an ash-colour, and internally 
of a deep orange-yellow. They break with a 
short close fracture, and are easily pulverized. 
Their odour is fragrant, and somewhat similar to 
that of camphor; and their taste is bitterish, 
aromatic, biting, and rather acrimonious. They 
contain, not only aromatic and bitter principles, 
but a very large proportion of starch and lignin ; 
they yield by distillation with water a heavy, 
greenish, camphorated, essential oil; they sur- 
render their active principles partly to water, 
and more completely to oil, ether, or alcohol; 
and, according to an analysis by John, they con- 
sist of 57 per cent. of lignin in combination with 
a substance which is soluble in potash but in- 
soluble in alcohol, 11 of yellow resin, 12 of yellow 
extractive, 14 of gum, 1 of volatile oil, and 6 of 
water. Turmeric root possesses tonic and car- 
minative properties; and is much used in the 
East for flatulent colic, nausea, difficult menstru- 
ation, and other diseases; and has a place in 
the Dublin pharmacopeeia, and in the Materia 
Medica of various systems of medical botany, 
but is scarcely ever prescribed by British phy- 
sicians. It was formerly in high esteem among 
farriers as a remedy for jaundice or yellows in 
horses ; but it now possesses the reputation of 
only a common-rate or even inferior aromatic 
stimulant. It serves as an excellent chemical 
test of the presence of alkalies,—indicating their 
TURNERA. 
action by changing its colour to red brown; and, 
with the help of an alum mordaunt, it imparts a 
beautiful but perishable yellow dye to cotton, 
linen, and woollen fabrics. The Hindoos use it 
for dyeing both yellow and green; and combine 
it with lime juice to form the preparation with 
which they make the perpendicular mark on 
their foreheads. 
The narrow-leaved turmeric, Curcuma angusti- 
folia, was introduced to Britain from India in 
1822. It has a height of about 3 feet; and car- 
ries yellow flowers in July. An alimentary sub- 
stance, of a starchy nature, is prepared from its 
roots in Travancore, exactly similar to arrow- 
root, and so pure and good as to be scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the true arrow-root made from 
Maranta arundinacea. The population of the 
Malabar coast hold it in high estimation. 
The zerumbet turmeric, Curcuma zerumbet, 
grows wild in many parts of Hindostan, and is 
extensively cultivated there for various purposes, 
and was introduced to Britain in 1807. Ithasa 
height of about 3 feet ; and carries yellow flowers 
from April till August. Its roots are largely ex- 
posed to sale in the lower provinces of India; and 
are supposed to constitute a large proportion of 
the turmeric imported into Britain; and they 
commonly occur in small round pieces, about 
one-third of an inch thick, and from 1} to 2 
inches in circumference. 
The amada-ginger turmeric, Curcuma amada, — 
was introduced to Britain from Bengal in 1819. 
It has commonly a height of about 2 feet; and 
carries red and yellow flowers from April till 
June. It is one of the kinds most frequently 
cultivated in the East; and has long had there 
a fully higher reputation than the long-rooted 
turmeric for medicinal purposes. 
TURN. See Hyparip. 
TURNERA. A diversified genus of exotic 
calyciflorous plants, constituting, with the genus 
piriqueta, the small natural order Turneriacez. 
This order is distinguished from Loasez, princi- 
pally by the stamens being as numerous as the 
petals, and in their being inserted, not in the 
throat of the tube, but at the bottom of the 
calyx. The plants comprise both herbs and 
small shrubs; and have alternate exstipulate 
leaves and axillary yellow flowers; and are chief- 
ly natives of tropical America.—About a dozen 
species of true turneras have been introduced to 
Britain; and about as many more are known. 
Two of the introduced species are hardy or half- 
hardy annuals, three are tender annuals, one is 
a hothouse evergreen perennial herb, and the 
rest are hothouse small evergreen shrubs.—One 
of the last, Zurnera ulmifolia, was the earliest 
introduced; and may serve as a sufiicient speci- 
men of the whole. Its stem sends out branches 
on all sides throughout its whole length, and at- 
tains a height of from 3 to 10 feet; its branches 
are slender, and comparatively stiff, and well 
covered with foliage; its leaves are petiolate, 
