4 DR. H. F. HANCE ON THE SOURCE OF THE 
In endeavouring to determine the specimens collected by Mr. 
Taintor, I found in my herbarium, for the purpose of compari- 
son, only the Hongkong species of Alpinia, and a few Moluccan 
ones, received from M. Teijsmann, of the Buitenzorg Garden; 
whilst, as regards books, I was restricted to Roxburgh's ‘ Flora 
Indiea, the writings of Wight and Miquel, and the very useful 
* Prodromus Monographie Scitaminearum’ of Prof. Horaninow, 
published at St. Petersburg in 1862. With these somewhat slender 
adminicula, Y was soon satisfied that the Galangal was either 
referable or else very closely allied to 4. calcarata, Rose. (which 
Roxburgh states to have been introduced from China into the 
Calcutta garden); and though I found some discrepancies be- 
tween the Kwangtung specimens and the description of A. cal- 
carata drawn up from the living plant by Roxburgh *, whose 
accuracy is so well known, yet these were apparently so few and 
unimportant that my chief ground of hesitation as to their 
identity was the extreme improbability that the rbizome of a 
plant widely cultivated within the tropics, and growing and 
flowering luxuriantly in the Calcutta and also, according to 
Thwaites t, in the Peradenia garden, should have remained for 
so long a period unrecognized, if really the same as the Lesser 
Galangal of commerce. 
It being evident that this question, of so much interest in 
itself, could not be solved with the means at hand, whilst an ap- 
proximate judgment would be valueless, I determined to let the 
matter lie over until I had access to more complete materials. 
Since then I have received, through the kindness of Mr. Han- 
bury, a sketch, with a single flower coloured, of the plate of A. 
calcarata given in Roscoe’s 'Scitaminem, and a full-coloured 
copy of that in the second volume of the ‘ Botanical Register ;' 
whilst my ever liberal friend Dr. Thwaites has sent me living 
rhizomes of the same species, whence have been reared fine 
healthy plants, though they have not as yet flowered, and, be- 
sides, copious specimens both of the flowering plant for the her- 
barium, and of the dried mature rhizomes. Mr. Taintor's Ga- 
langal plants have also again blossomed under culture, but set 
no fruit f; so that fresh flowering specimens of A. calcarata, 
* Flora Indica, ed. Carey, vol. i. p. 69. 
+ Enum. Pl. Zeyl. p. 320. 
i Zingiberaceous plants when under cultivation, even in localities where 
they are native, are far less disposed to fruit than the same species in a wild 
state, the flowers usually dropping off as soon as they fade. 
