into tubers and leaves capable of reproducing the 
plant, and further for the purpose of informing many 
persons in India, who take an interest in such in- 
quiries, that they are American not Asiatic plants. 
The plant from which the accompanying figure was 
taken grew at Palamcottah. It may perhaps be 
noticed, with surprise by some, that this is said to 
be stemless notwithstanding its gigantic stem of some 
20 or 30 feet high. The stem in this case, however, 
is not à true stem, but a scape or flower stalk, ter- 
minating in a large panicle of flowers and viviperous 
buds. It is in truth the same in kind, only much 
larger, as the flower stalks of the preceding Crinums. 
Wildenow calls it a branched scape. I have taken 
the liberty of altering the expression and called it a 
panicled one, in contradistinetion to a spiked and 
racemed one, which it actually is. The Agave Ame- 
ricana, or as it is usually called, American Aloe, now 
so common all over the country, belongs to the same 
genus, and, as the name imports, comes from the 
same country. They are not aloes. Rumphius has 
introduced a figure of this plant into his Herb. 
Amboynensis, apparently, on the supposition of its 
being indigenous in that island. 
2095. Fourcroya GIGANTEA (Ventenat), stemless: 
leaves entire: scape panicled. 
'This, as remarked above, is also an introduced 
plant common about Bangalore and Seringapatam 
as a hedge row plant. It is distinguished generically 
from the other by its perianth, the filaments being 
dilated at the base, the large fleshy protuberance at 
the base of the style and crowning the ovary, and by 
the fringed stigma. Like the preceding it is also vi- 
viperous. The drawing was taken from plants grow- 
ing at Bangalore. 
5 
2026. ArpPINIA RHEEDIT (R. W., Rheede Hort. 
Mal. 11. tab. 14), leaves sub-sessile from broad lanceo- 
late obtuse to lanceolate, cuspidate : panicle terminal, 
erect, many-flowered: outer series linear, obtuse, 
somewhat concave, lip unguiculate, sub-orbicular, 2- 
lobed claw with two dilatations at the base (lateral 
lobes of the inner perianth) each terminating in a 
subulate point, capsules globose, slightly downy. 
Malabar, Courtallum. Roxburgh quotes Rheede's 
plate for his Alpinia Allugas, and, judging from his 
description, except the lip which he does mention as 
unguiculate, not without reason, but he at the same 
time quotes Roscoe as his authority for the name. 
Roscoe's plant, as represented in his Monandrean 
Scitaminious plants, seems to me totally different 
from both Rheede's and mine, which quite corres- 
pond, hence I am precluded from adopting his name. 
Such being the case, I have found it necessary to 
view this as a new species and have given it the 
name of the original discoverer. One circumstance 
of note is the character given of the appendages at 
the base of the claw described by Roxburgh as * two 
fleshy protuberances near the base." In my plant 
they are flat, somewhat coriaceous, ascending, and 
each terminates in an erect subulate tooth, but not 
well represented in the plate. They are coloured, 
for even in the dry plant they remain darker—a 
reddish brown—than the claw to which they belong. 
I dare say it is scarcely n to mention that 
they are the rudimentary lateral lobes of the inner 
series of the perianth, which, in this genus and in 
Costus, is reduced to the lip with occasionally two 
subulate teeth at the base. In Roscoe's plate of A. 
Allugas they are represented as globose fleshy bodies. 
This, when grown in favourable circumstances, seems 
to be a very handsome plant, the panicles being large 
and the flowers very numerous. 
2027. ALPINIA nutans (Roscoe), leaves lanceolar, 
short petioled, smooth: racemes compound by the 
lower pedicels being two or three-flowered, drooping : 
lip large ovate, cordate, obscurely three-lobed at the 
base; middle lobe curled on the margin: ovary 
hairy, oval, 3-celled : ovules attached to the middle 
of the partitions: capsules globose, sprinkled with 
Short hairs. À 
The specimen (which at the time happened to be 
my only available one) taken to convey an idea of 
this most gorgeous plant is so unfit for the purpose 
that I was only induced to use it as presenting an 
unusual form, an erect in place of a drooping raceme— 
as most conspicuously showing the spathe in which 
it is at first enclosed ; the small leaf at the end often 
enlarges so much that the spathe portion becomes 
obscured—and lastiy, but principally, because at the 
time the drawing was made it was virtually the 
only species of the genus I had, my others having 
accidentally got mislaid. It does not convey so good 
an idea of the characters of the species as I could 
wish, but it was for the sake of illustrating the genus 
it was used and that it does well, by showing all its 
characters. Here we see the large common spathe 
of the whole panicle; at fig. 1, a partial spathe 
enclosing several flowers, at 2, that opened showing 
one flower open and an unopened bud. The un- 
opened one encloses in addition to its own flowers 
another younger bud. The dissected flower, fig. 3, 
shows the perfect exterior series of the perianth and 
the lip, but no laterallobes of the inner series, these 
are not constant and seem to have been absent in 
this specimen, as the examination of several flowers 
gave no sign of their presence, though I have since 
seen indications in another specimen: it also shows 
the stamen and style in situ, the anther without ap- 
pendage of any sort. Fig. 5 shows the ovary with 
the perfect and rudimentary styles, figures 6 and 7, 
iransverse and vertical sections of the ovary, the 
former showing the placentæ attached to the middle 
of the partitions, not to the edges in the axis. Fig. 
8 presents a full grown capsule, 9 a seed, 10 the same 
cut so as to show the position of the embryo and 
11-12 two embryos detached showing their very 
peculiar form; they are flattened, somewhat foliace- 
ous, with the radicle springing from the middle and 
pointing towards the hilum. 
2028. ALPINIA CALCARATA (Roscoe), flowers ter- 
minal, spike slightly declined, downy ; lip large ovate, 
crenate, slightly bifid; spurred at the base: leaves 
narrow lanceolate, unequal-sided. Roscoe. 
Shevagherry Hills, flowering August. 
The only point in which the figure differs from 
the character is the undivided lip, and that as shown 
in Roscoe's plate is sometimes reduced to mere slight 
emargination, so that I have no doubt of this being 
the true plant. Fig. 5 represents an unusual form, 
a diandrous flower, the stamens being attached on 
either edge of the lip. The flower represented was 
the only one I could find on the specimen. 
& TE 
