of the Monandrous Plants of India. 281 
the margin strongly nerved. But the part by which this plant is 
peculiarly distinguished is the filament, which is deeply cloven 
to the base, so as to form two distinct processes, each of them 
crowned with its proper anthera, between which rises the. style, 
perfectly free, and not inclosed by a double anthera, as in the 
rest of the perfect Scitaminee. In other respects this plant ap- 
pears to be so truly an Alpinia, that I am inclined to retain it in 
the genus under an appellation characteristic of its divided fila- 
ment (Alpinia diffissa.) TS 
In the third of these figures, the calyx is concave, ovate ; nec- 
tarium broad, flat, nearly circular, but deeply indented on each 
side of the lip, so as to form three nearly equal sections; colour 
yellow, with purple rays diverging from its base, where it is 
spurred ; filament simple, terminating in an ovate summit.. Stem 
jointed, inclined to spiral, leaves downy, petioles of the upper. 
ones uniting with the bractes. "The habit of the plant is rather 
that of a Costus than an Alpinia; but the inflorescence is a loose 
panicle, and not a bracteated spike, and the whole construction 
of the corolla seems decisive of the genus. (Alpinia bracteata.) 
Perhaps no genus in the whole vegetable system has been in- 
volved in greater confusion than Globba. It is to you, as Dr. Rox- 
burgh has already observed, that we are indebted for the. cor- 
rection of those errors, by which the genus is now as clearly de- 
fined, as any of thescitaminean plants. Of this, it appears, there 
are in the garden at Calcutta six species. 1. The Marantina, 
figured in your Exot. Bot. tab. 103. 2. Bulbifera, a new species, 
unless it be the Sessil/flora, figured in the Bot. Mag. No. 1428, 
which Dr. Sims thinks probable. Of the 3d, Oriaiensis, Dr. Rox- 
burgh has given a good coloured figure. For his 4th, G. Hura, 
he has cited the Hura Siamensium of Retz, (Obs. Fas. iii. p. 49,) 
which Willdenow conjectured to be an Alpinia, but which you 
have ascertained and described from a sketch in the possession of 
Sir 
