Science papers : chiefly pharmacological and botanical / by Daniel Hanbury ; edited, with memoir, by Joseph Ince.

  • Daniel Hanbury
Date:
1876
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Science papers : chiefly pharmacological and botanical / by Daniel Hanbury ; edited, with memoir, by Joseph Ince. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    which having been fertilized artificially, were succeeded by ripe 1^72. fruits. Now a most interesting point about this plant is its complete identity with a species of Amomum growing in Tropical western Africa. Though Mr. Meurot's excellent drawings might well have raised suspicions that such was the fact, it was not until my plant flowered that I convinced myself that the Amomum Danielli of Hooker could in no way be distinguished from the Identity of A. A. angustifolium of Sonnerat. A. Danielli, Hook, f, has been with A. Dani- figured three times in the last twenty years,^ yet its similarity to the Madagascar plant has not been noticed, although of the latter there is in addition to Sonnerat's plate, an excellent drawing in Eoxburgh's unpublished collection, now in the herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew. The West African area of the plant extends along the coast W. Africa, line from Sierra Leone to Gaboon, and perhaps still further south. Growing over this wide district and under considerable variation of altitude, the plant presents some variations; the flower is either yellow or red, or has the labellum alone, yellow. The scape is simple or branched, short or long, and varies in the number of fruits it bears; and the fruits themselves differ much in size according to locality. But the labellum is always narrow and pendulous, and the seeds oblong and highly polished. The negroes of West Africa eat the pleasantly acidulous pulp of the fruit, and apparently do not use the seeds, but in Mauritius according to Bouton, the latter are chewed to sweeten the breath. I have no reason for believing that the fruits of Amomum angustifolium, Sonn., have ever been even an occasional article of export, either from Eastern or Western Africa, and feel quite certain that they never formed a regular object of commerce with Europe. The seeds are weak in aroma and have a dis- agreeable irritating taste, so that they could with no advantage replace the Cardamoms of Malabar or Ceylon.—[N. Eepert. f. Pharm. xxi. 228.] 1 Hooker's Journ. of Bot. IV. (1852) pi. Y. sub nom. Amomum Afzelii, Bot Mag. tabb. 4764, 5250. I 2
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