Tab. 6995. 

 alpinia officinarum. 



Native of South China. 



Nat. Ord. Scitamine.e. — Tribe Ziitgibere^:. 

 Genus Alpinia, Linn. ; {Benth. et Koolc.f. Gen. PL vol. iii. p. 648.) 



Alpinia officinarum ; rhizomate crasso repente, caule basi tuberoso erecto folioso-, 

 foliis anguste lanceolatis caudato-acuminatis glaberrimis marginibus invissimis 

 basi angustatis in vaginam sessilibus, vagina elongata in ligulam erectam 

 elongatam producta, scapo terminali robusto erecto pubescente, spica simplici 

 floribus sessilibus, ovario globoso tomentoso, calyce subcampanulato pubescente 

 breviter obtuse 2-3-fido, corollse tubo calyce subduplo loDgiore lobisque lineari- 

 oblongis obtusis albis apices versus ciliatis, staminodiis lateralibus calcarifonnibus, 

 labello oblongo obtuso integro v. emarginato albo disco sanguineo-nervoso, 

 filamento crasso, antherse loculis superne divaricatis. 



A. officinarum, Hance in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. vol. xiii. p. 6, and in Jburn. But, 

 1873, p. 175 ; Benth. Sf Trim. Med. PL vol. iv. t. 271. 



The subject of this plate, the " lesser or Chinese 

 Galangal," was formerly in great repute as an aromatic 

 stimulant amongst the Arabs and Greeks, and formerly in 

 Western Europe, but is now banished from the British 

 pharmacopoeias. The plant that produced it was unknown 

 to Botanists till 1867, when Mr. Sampson, accompanied by 

 that excellent Botanist the late Dr. Hance of China, dis- 

 covered it near the village of Tung-sai, on the peninsula of 

 Lei-chau-fu, opposite the Island of Hainan (Lat. 20° N.), 

 on which island also it has been found by the late Mr. 

 Swinhoe. Roots alone were first obtained, apparently from 

 a formerly cultivated spot, but the plant was subsequently 

 found wild on the island of Hainan itself, and living and 

 dried specimens were procured which enabled Dr. Hance 

 to describe the plant with accuracy, and to determine its 

 being a new species of Alpinia, to which he gave the name 

 of officinarum; and he further identified it with that pro- 

 ducing the " radix Galangae minoris " of pharmacists. 



Its nearest affinity is, as Dr. Hance has indicated, the 

 well-known A. calcarata (Roscoe in Trans. Linn. Soc. v. 

 viii. p. 347), which is well described in Roxburgh's Flora 



may 1st, 1888. 



