460 Sir J. E. Smith's Remarks on Hypnum recognitum, 



The Ferns, chiefly raised from seed by Mr. Henry Shepherd, 

 according to the method of which an account has been published 

 in the Transactions of the Horticultural Society *, are beyond all 

 example copious and luxuriant in the Liverpool stoves ; as are 

 the scitamineous plants, to which last one large hot-house is ex- 

 clusively allotted. There the singular property of some new 

 species of Curcuma, perhaps not confined to them alone, of se- 

 creting, and retaining in their bractece, a copious watery fluid, 

 has been first observed. Among the various specimens, both 

 living and dried, of this natural order, which Mr. Roscoe, still 

 intent upon their study, has received from Dr. Wallich of Cal- 

 cutta, and which are chiefly the produce of Nepal, we have re- 

 cognised four new species of Roscoea, in addition to the purpurea, 

 discovered in that country by Dr. Hamilton, on which I founded 

 the genus, in Exotic Botany. By these I was enabled to con- 

 firm, and in some degree to improve, the generic character, as 

 well as to define all the species, under the superintendence of 

 my learned friend. Till either of us can give a more ample ac- 

 count of these plants, I beg leave here to present you with their 

 generic and specific distinctions. 



ROSCOEA. Sm. Exot. Bot. «. ii. 97. 



Ess. Char. Anther a biloba, incurva, terminalis, stylum vagi- 

 nans; basi bicalcarata. Corolla ringens, limbo duplici; 

 labio superiore fornicato. Calyx monophyllus, tubulosus. 



1. R. purpurea ; Exot. Bot. t. 108; spied foliorum vaginis ob- 



voluta, calyce obliquo integro. 



2. R. gracilis; spica exsertd pauciflora laxd, calyce retuso. 



3. R. elatior; spied exsertd multiflora subcoarctata, calyce re- 



tuso. 



* Vol. iii. p. 3.S8. 



4. R. spi~ 



