a 
RADIX GALANGZE MINORIS OF PHARMACOLOGISTS. 
and fruit of both species being alone wanting, I may claim to 
have had at my disposal as good materials for comparison as 
ordinarily fall to the lot of a descriptive botanist. I have, to the 
best of my ability, made a careful and exact comparative exami- 
nation of living flowerless plants of each kind (including the rhi- 
zome), and of the mature rhizome of each; whilst I have com- 
pared the fresh and also the dried flowering plant of the Ga- 
langal with separate dried flowers, as well as herbarium specimens 
of the entire inflorescence, of A. calcarata. The result is, that I 
am now entirely satisfied that the plant which furnishes the 
Lesser Galangal root is, though very closely allied to Alpinia 
calcarata, Roscoe, a perfectly distinct and well-defined species, 
the two differing in several particulars of structure, as well as in 
sensible qualities, as the following brief comparative notes will 
show :— 
Alpinia calcarata. Galangal. 
Dried mature rhizomes chestnut- 
brown*, conspicuously furrowed lon- 
gitudinally; when cut across, with 
a stronger odour than Galangal, 
the cut surface remaining of a fus- 
cous hue ; of a bitter aromatic taste, 
much like cardamoms, with a di- 
stinct flavour of rhubarb superadded, 
but destitute of heat. Sheaths and 
bases of the young living stems or 
shoots more or less tinged with 
pink; tasting somewhat like rhu- 
barb, but without any hot flavour. 
Leaves of a full deep green; aro- 
matic, but not hot in taste. Li- 
gule 3-6 lines long, rounded or 
Dried mature rhizomes externally 
rufous-brown, only very finely stri- 
ated longitudinally; when cut across, 
surface becoming rufous ; aromatic 
and very warm in taste, as if made 
up of ginger and pepper, with a 
recognizable camphoraceous flavour, 
leaving a powerful sensation of heat 
in the mouth when chewed T. Bases 
of young shoots white; tasting very 
warm. Leaves of a rather lighter 
green; hot in taste. Ligule 9-15 
lines long, aeutish. Racemes quite 
simple. Flowers without a bract- 
let. Labellum without the slightest 
trace of yellow, its veins very fine. 
* Described by Roxburgh as somewhat woolly and pale-coloured. Dr. 
Thwaites and myself find them perfectly smooth, both when young and at full 
growth. The young fresh rhizomes of both plants are quite white and succu- 
lent; but these can scarcely be alluded to: again, some dried rhizomes kindly 
supplied from the Calcutta garden are cinnamon-coloured ; but these are of 
small diameter, and evidently immature. The full-grown ones from Ceylon 
are, as described, of a chestnut hue externally, 
t Cesalpinus characterizes the rhizome very accurately, though briefly, as 
“ subrufa intus et extra, sapore Piperis, modice odorata” (De Plant. lib. iv. 
c. 62). 
