GALANGAL, formerly written "galingale," and sometimes "garingal," rlaizoma galanga, a drug, now obsolete, tasting like mingled ginger and pepper. Lesser galangal root, the galangal of commerce, is the dried rhizome of Alpinia oficinarur, a plant of the natural family Zingiberaceae, growing in the Chinese island of Hainan, where it is cultivated, and closely allied to Alpinia cal carata, the rhizome of which is sold in the bazaars of some parts of India as a sort of galangal. Its stems are about 4f t. long and its light-green leaves are slender, lanceolate and pungent; the Bowers are white with red veins and in simple racemes ; the roots form dense masses, sometimes more than a foot in diameter; and the rhizomes grow horizontally, and are fin. in thickness.