t is a large
perennial herb with a thick fleshy root-stock, which sends up flowering
stems, 6 to 12 ft. high. The large leaves are arranged in two rows, have
very long sheaths enveloping the stem and a lanceolate spreading blade 1
to 2-1/2 ft. long. The fruit is an ovate-triangular, three-celled,
three-valved capsule (about 1/5 in. long, of a dirty yellow colour)
enclosing numerous angular seeds, which form the valuable part of the
plant. It is a native of the mountainous parts of the Malabar coast of
India, and the fruits are procured either from wild plants or by
cultivation throughout Travancore, western Mysore, and along the western
Ghauts. A cardamom of much larger size found growing in Ceylon was
formerly regarded as belonging to a distinct species, and described as
such under the name of _Elettaria major_; but it is now known to be only
a variety of the Malabar cardamom. In commerce, several varieties are
distinguished according to their size and flavour. The most esteemed are
known as "shorts," a name given to such capsules as are from a quarter
to half an inch long and about a quarter broad. Following these come
"short-longs" and "long-longs," also distinguished by their size, the
largest reaching to about an inch in length. The Ceylon cardamom attains
a length of an inch and a half and is about a third of an inch broad,
with a brownish pericarp and a distinct aromatic odour. Among the other
plants, the fruits of which pass in commerce as cardamoms, are the round
or cluster cardamom, _Amomum Cardamomum_, a native of Siam and Java; the
bastard cardamom of Siam, _A. xanthioides_ --the Bengal cardamom, which
is the fruit of _A. subulatum_, a native of Nepal; the Java cardamom,
produced by _A. maximum_; and the Korarima cardamom of Somaliland. The
last-named is the product of a plant which is unknown botanically.
Cardamoms generally are possessed of a pleasant aromatic odour, and an
agreeable, spicy taste. On account of their flavour they are much used
with other medicines, and they form a principal ingredient in curries
and compounded spices. In the north of Europe they are much used as a
spice and flavouring material for cakes and liqueurs; and they are very
extensively employed in the East for chewing with betel, &c.

CARDAN [Ital. CARDANO], GIROLAMO [GERONYMO or HIERONIMO] (1501-1576),
Italian mathematician, physician and astrologer, born at Pavia on the
24th of September 1501, was the illegitimate son of