CARDAMOMS, aromatic seeds furnished by various species of Anonum and Renealmia, belonging to the natural order Zingiberaceæ, and to the Linnaean class and order Monandria Monogynia. Various kinds are known in commerce, such as the great or Madagascar cardamom, the produce of the Anonum angustifolium; the Java cardamom, produced by the A. maximum; the round cardamom, A. Cardamomum; the Malabar or clustered cardamom, the most esteemed of all, from the Renealmia Cardamomum; paradise grains or Malaguetta pepper, produced by the A. Grana Paradisi; besides several others of inferior note from other members of the same genera. Cardamom seeds are the most grateful of all the aromatics, are largely used to give flavour to aromatic cordials, and enter into the composition of very many of the preparations of drugs used in medicine. With the exception of the grains of paradise, all the kinds of cardamoms are imported in their bluntly triangular somewhat conical shaped leathery capsules, which are full of the small, compressed, rough, trapezoidal seeds in which the flower abounds.