the rhizome (underground stem) of Zingiber officinale, a plant of the nat. ord. Zingiberaceae, and a native of the East Indies and China, but early carried to the West Indies, where it is much cultivated, particularly in the island of Jamaica. The ginger of commerce is distinguished into two kinds, the white and the black; but the difference depends merely on the method of preparation. The white variety consists of carefully selected rhizomes, which are scraped, scalded in boiling water, and dried in the sun; and the whiteness is frequently aided in this country by bleaching with chloride of lime. The black kind (which is really of a pale brown colour) consists of inferior pieces which have been scalded but not scraped. Ginger should be observed, however, that some East Indian ginger, in its natural state, is as light-coloured as African ginger that has undergone the whitening process; and hence it seems probable that they are the produce of different species.

The young and tender rhizomes preserved in syrup constitute the well-known sweetmeat called preserved ginger. Ginger is much employed in medicine as an antispasmodic and carminative. Made into a thin paste with spirit, and spread as a plaster, it is a useful topical remedy in face-ache, earache, &c.; and has this peculiar property, that notwithstanding it excites a considerable sensation of heat, it leaves even the most delicate skin perfectly free from injury or discoloration.