a ea eee} 
| quantities, for exportation to Britain. 
698 CARCASS. 
Keith’s Botanical Lexicon.—Johnson’s Lectures on 
Agricultural Chemistry—Dr. Madden’s Papers in 
Quarterly Journal of Agriculture.—Chaptal’s Che- 
mistry applied to Agriculture.—The Gardener's 
Gazette. 
CARCASS, or Carcasz. The technical and 
collective name of the ribs, belly, and flanks of 
the horse. 
CARDAMINE. See Laprzs’ Smock. 
CARDAMOM,—botanically Alpinia cardamo- 
mum. An officinal and ornamental hothouse 
plant, of the order Scitamineze. It grows wild, 
and is cultivated, in India; and was introduced 
thence to Britain in 1815. Its root is an oblong, 
jointed, whitish tuber; its stems are reed-like, 
round, smooth, half an inch thick, and from eight 
to twelve feet high; its leaves are alternate, 
sheathing, green, broad, from four inches to two 
feet long, and strongly aromatic and subacrid in 
both taste and odour; its flowers are produced 
in racemes from the underground stem, and creep 
along the ground, and have a whitish-purple col- 
our, and appear in August; and its capsule is 
smooth and fleshy, and contains from eighteen to 
twenty-seven seeds. The cultivated plants do 
not flower till their fourth year ; and their ripe 
capsules are gathered in November, and dried 
either in the sunshine or over a slow and gentle 
fire. The seeds are very extensively used in 
India for mixing up with the areca-nut and for 
flavouring ragouts; and are produced, in large 
About 
60,000 pounds are collected annually on the Ma- 
labar coast ; and proportionally great quantities 
are produced in some other continental districts, 
and in the island of Ceylon. They have a warm 
spicy taste, and a very agreeable though pungent 
aromatic odour; and they readily surrender all 
their properties to ether or to alcohol. They 
are less stimulating than pepper, and act as gentle 
carminatives and tonics; but are used, in hu- 
man medicine, principally as a heating ingredient 
in stomachic mixtures,—and, in veterinary prac- 
tice, almost wholly as a cordial. No fewer than 
fifteen of the preparations ordered by the phar- 
macopceias have cardamom as one of their ingre- 
dients. 
The plant which we have described is the only 
one which yields the true cardamom of com- 
merce; but several other species of the order Sci- 
tamineze produce seeds of kindred though inferior 
properties, and are not infrequently confounded 
_ with this plant, in some instances by knavery, 
| and in others by mere ignorance. 
| alpinia, Alpinia media, growing to three-fourths 
| of the height of the true cardamom plant, and 
| producing red flowers in July and August, is 
| sometimes called the middle cardamom. The car- 
The mediate 
damous amomum, Amomum cardamomum, grow- 
ing to half the height of the true cardamom 
plant, and producing pale brown flowers in May 
and June, is very generally called the small or 
lesser cardamom, ‘The grain of paradise plant, 
CARDOON. 
also, and even all the species of the genus amo- 
mum, are occasionally regarded as cardamom 
plants. | 
CARDIAC. See Moturerwort. 
CARDITIS. Inflammation of the heart. It 
sometimes occurs in the horse; and may possibly 
be relieved by appliances for promoting absorp- 
tion; but, in general, it must be regarded as 
hopeless. 
CARDOON, or Cuarpvoy,—botanically Cynara 
cardunculus. A cultivated, culinary, perennial 
plant, of the artichoke genus. “It is a native of 
Candia, and was introduced thence to Britain 
about the middle of the 17th century. It posses- 
ses a somewhat close resemblance to the common 
garden artichoke, and has been regarded by some 
botanists as a hybrid of it; but it bears decided 
marks of being a perfectly distinct species. It 
usually grows to the height of about five feet ; 
and it carries purplish blue composite flowers in 
August and September. Its florets were formerly 
used by the Portuguese for coagulating milk, in 
the same manner in which rennet is used in 
Britain; and the large, fleshy, tender, stems of 
its inner leaves, blanched and rendered crisp by 
earthing up, are used, during winter in Britain, 
for stewing, and for soups and salads. 
Cardoon is sown in March, in a bed of light 
soil, exactly such as is suitable for artichoke. 
When the plants come up too close, they should 
be thinned ; and, when an early supply is wanted, 
the plants thinned out may be transplanted into 
a nursery bed, at distances from one another of | 
three or four inches, there to remain, and to be 
kept perfectly free from weeds, till ready for final 
transplanting ; and in June, they may be removed | 
to a piece of moist, rich, well-prepared ground, 
there to grow to maturity, and to yield their 
produce. They must be well watered till they 
take root; they must afterwards be kept quite 
free from weeds ; they must, as they advance in 
height, have some soil drawn up around the lower 
part of their stems; and, when they attain their 
full size, they must be closely tied up with hay- 
bands, and afterwards earthed up almost to their 
tops. But in the process of earthing up, care 
must be used not to allow any of the soil to fall 
amongst their leaves, and the soil heaped around | 
each plant must be smoothed over the surface to 
cause the rain to run off; for either the falling 
of a little soil among the leaves, or the penetrat- 
ing of rain through the earthing up, might | 
occasion the plants.to rot. The thorough blanch- 
ing of the leaf-stalks, to the height of from one 
foot to three feet, will be effected in the course 
of five or six weeks from the time of earthing up, 
so that when a succession is wanted for the table, 
only a few plants should be earthed up at one 
time, and successive sets or groups or even indi- 
viduals of them may be earthed up at intervals 
of seven or ten days. If severe frost occur in 
the early part of winter, a covering of straw or 
| haulm must be placed on the tops of such plants 
