The Zerumbeth Plant.
Zerumbetha.
The zerumbeth plant in same respects resembles that which affords the zedoary, but it is larger. It is a native of the East, and has not been yet got into our gardens. The leaves grow together in such a manner as to form a kind of stalk; this is six feet high or more; but it is only formed of their lower parts wrapped round one another, in the manner of the leaves of our flags. The loose part of each leaf is long, narrow, and of a bluish green. The flowers stand upon separate stalks; these rise about a foot high, and are of a brownish colour: they have only a sort of films upon them in the place of leaves. The flowers stand in a short and thick spike, at the tops of these, they are oblong, hollow, moderately large, and of a beautiful scarlet. The root is long and irregular.
The root is used; our druggists keep it: it is warm and good in all nervous cases. Its virtues are very nearly the same with those of zedoary; and in general the round roots of zedoary are sold under its name, though in reality it is a much longer, as well as larger root, than the zedoary itself.
