Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 347.

Cl. 1. Ord. 1. Monandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Scitamineae. G. novum. Anther double. Filament lengthened beyond the anther with a furrowed awl-shaped beak embracing the style. Style received in the furrow of the anther. Sp. 1. Z. officinale.1 Officinal Ginger. Jacquin, Hortus Vindobonensis, i. 31. t. 75. (Amomum Zingiber) Willd. Spec. Plant, i.

6. Med. Bot. 3d edit. 731. t. 250. Rumph. Amb. ii. t. 12.

Roscoe, Lin. Trans, viii. 348. Officinal. Zingiber, Lond. Amomi Zingiberis radix Edin.,

Amomum Zingiber; radix, Dub. Ginger root.

Syn. Gingembre (F.), Ingwer, Imber(G.), Zenzero (I.). Gengibre (S.), Gengivre (Port.), Gember (Dutch), Ingefer (Dan.), Ingefara (Swed.), Jembier (Pol.), Sont'h, Ada, Adrac (H.), Sunt'hi (Sans.), Dshey (Javanese), Sookkoo (Tarn.), Alia (Malay), Zungebell (Pers.), Siwe (Amb.), Inschi kau (Malabar), Sepudday (Malay).

The ginger plant is a native of the East Indies2, and is particularly abundant in the mountainous district of Gingi, to the east of Pondicherry, whence it derived its name. It is now naturalized to the West Indies, where it flowers in September. The rhizome is perennial, creeping, palmate, fleshy, becoming fibrous, and sending off many long fibres and offsets; the stem is an annual culm, about three feet in height, upright, round, and enclosed in an imbricate, membranous sheathing. The leaves are alternate, linear-lanceolate, six inches to twelve long, equilateral, smooth, and on short embracing petioles. The flowers, which have an aromatic odour, are in a dense, solitary, club-shaped spike, close to the stem, composed of large, upright, ovate, subacuminate, green, striated scales, with a yellow membranous margin, half closing the flowers: the calyx is a small double spathe of a dingy yellow colour, tubular, three-toothed, with the segments of the border conical, and nearly equal: corolla with a double limb: the anther-bearing filament is extended beyond the anther, has an awl-shaped appendage, with a groove to receive the style after it has passed between the lobes of the anthers, and is terminated with a large double, ovate anther: style filiform, with two subulate pointed processes at the base: stigma a compressed ciliated cup: the capsule is smooth, fleshy, tetragonous, containing many oblong seeds.

Dioscoridis. The similarity between the Greek name of the plant and the Sanscrit sringavera (horn-shaped) is remarkable. Asiatic Researches, vol. xi. p.346.

2 It is named ale by the Brahmins.

The herbaceous part of the plant withers in December; the rhizomes are dug up in January; but when it is intended to be preserved in syrup, it is dug up when the shoots do not exceed five or six inches in height. For preparing the dried ginger, the best pieces are selected, scraped, then washed, and dried in the sun with great care. This is called white ginger; in contradistinction to which the rhizomes which are scalded in boiling water before being dried, are denominated black ginger. The confected or preserved ginger is prepared by scalding the green rhizomes till they are tender; then peeling them in cold water, and putting them into a thin syrup, from which in a few days they are shifted into the jars in which they come home, and a very rich syrup poured over them, which is sometimes three or four times renewed.1

Dried ginger is imported in bags, each containing about one hundred weight. The white kind usually called Jamaica ginger,' brings the highest price, being more pungent and better flavoured than the black or East Indian. The external characters of goodness in either are soundness, heaviness, and firmness: the pieces that are light and soft, worm-eaten, or very friable and fibrous, should be rejected. The confected ginger is nearly translucent when good.

Qualities. - Dried ginger has a pungent aromatic odour, and a hot biting taste. Its odour appears to depend on a volatile oil, which can be obtained separate in distillation with water, and has all the flavour, but none of the pungency of the root. Water, alcohol, and ether extract its virtues. The greater part of ginger root, however, is starch. To separate it, triturate the root with water, and strain through cloths: then after the fecula, which is suspended in the water, has subsided, separate it by decanting off the water, and macerate in alcohol; what remains undissolved is a tolerably pure insipid starch. The pungency resides in a resino-extractive matter which is combined with the fecula, but may be obtained separate by evaporating the ethereal tincture on the surface of water. M. Morin and Rouen have analyzed ginger, and give the following as its components: - Resin soluble in ether, resinous matter insoluble in ether, a bluish-green volatile oil, vegeto-animal matter, a substance analogous to osmazome.

1 In Jamaica, the shifted syrup is diluted with water, and fermented into a pleasant liquor, called cool-drink, with some mixture of lignum-vitae and sugar. Long's Jamaica.

acetic acid, acetate of potassa, starch, gum, sulphur, several oxides, and lignin.1

Medical properties and uses. - Ginger is stimulant, carminative, and sialogogue. It has been found useful in flatulent cholic, dyspepsia, and tympanitis; and in gout when it attacks the stomach. It is less frequently used alone than as an adjunct to other remedies, to promote their efficacy and give them warmth. The local stimulus of ginger, when chewed, excites the salivary glands, and provokes a considerable flow of saliva: hence it has been found useful as a sialogogue in relaxations of the uvula and tonsils, and in paralysis of the muscles of the tongue and fauces.

The dose of powdered ginger may be from grs. x. to Э j.

Officinal preparations. - Syrupus Zingiberis, L. E. D. Syrup. Rhamni, L. Tinctura Zingiberis, L. D. Tinct. Cinnamomi comp., L. Tinct. Rhei comp., L. Acid. Sidphur. aromat, E. D. Con-fectio Opii, L. D. Confect. Scammonii, L. D. Infusum Sennae, comp., L. D. Pulvis Cinnam. comp., L. E. D. Pulvis Jalapae comp., L. Pulv. Scammonii comp., L. D. Pulv. Sennae comp., L. D. Pilulae Hydrargyri Iodidi, L. Pilulae Scillae, D: Pilulae Scillae comp., L. Pilula Aloes composita, D. Vinum Aloes, E. D.

1 Journ. de Pharm. Juin, 1823.