Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 2, February 1899 / Illustrated by Color Photography

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
Vol. V.
No. 2.
FEBRUARY, 1899.

DR. ALBERT SCHNEIDER, Northwestern University School of Pharmacy.
And ginger shall be hot i' the mouth, too.
— Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II., 3.
THE well-known spice ginger is the underground stem ( rhizome ) of an herbaceous reed-like plant known as Zingiber officinale . The rhizome is perennial, but the leaf and flower-bearing stems are annual. The stems are from three to six feet high. The leaves of the upper part of the stem are sword-shaped; the lower leaves are rudimentary and sheath-like. The flowers occur in the form of conical spikes borne upon the apex of stems which bear only sheath-like leaves.
The ginger plant is said to be a native of southern Asia, although it is now rarely found growing wild. It is very extensively cultivated in the tropical countries of both hemispheres, particularly in southern China, India, Africa, and Jamaica. The word ginger is said to have been derived from the Greek Zingiber, which again was derived from the Arabian Zindschabil, which means the root from India. It is further stated that the word was derived from Gingi, a country west of Pondecheri where the plant is said to grow wild.
True ginger must not be confounded with wild ginger, which is a small herbaceous plant ( Asarum canadense ) of the United States. The long, slender rhizomes of Asarum have a pungent, aromatic taste similar to ginger. According to popular belief this plant has a peculiar charm. Friends provided with the leaves are enabled to converse with each other, though many miles apart and speaking in the faintest whisper.
The early Greeks and Romans made extensive use of ginger as a spice and as a medicine. During the third century it was apparently a very costly spice, but during the eleventh century it became cheaper, owing to extensive cultivation, and was quite generally used in Europe. Dioscrides and Plinius maintained that this spice was derived chiefly from Arabia. The noted traveler and historian, Marco Polo (1280-1290) is said to have been the first European who saw the wild-growing plant in its home in India. As early as the thirteenth century a considerable number of varieties of ginger were under cultivation, which received distinctive names as Beledi, Colombino, Gebeli, Deli, etc., usually named after the country or locality from which it was obtained.