64 _ MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA, Alpinia. 
4. A.'malaccensis. Roscoe in Trans, Linn. Soe, 8, 345. 
Leaves lanceolate, petioled, villous underneath. Raceme 
terminal, simple. Lip obscurely three-lobed, with two spurs 
at the base; lateral lobes incurved. Capsules obliquely 
spheroidal. 
Maranta malaccensis. Linn. sp. pl. ed. Willd, 1. 14. 
Galanga malaccensis, Rumph, Amb, 5, p. 176. t. 71. f. 1. 
A most beautiful and stately plant, a native of Chittagong, 
and from thence sent by Mr. W. M. Maddern, to the Bota- 
nic garden near Calcutta, where it blossoms in April and 
‘May, the very hottest time of the year and ripens its seed in a 
the rains. 
Root perennial. Stems numerous, (within four years, asin- 
gle root increased so much, as to produce about fifty,) from — 
six to ten feet in height ; those in the centre erect, in the cir- 
cumference bending out; in two, three, or four years, the 
stoutest blossom, ripen their seed, and decay. Leaves bifari- 
ous, petioled, lanceolate, acute; margins often waved, and 
slightly fringed with short brown hairs; upper surface 
sitfiooth; under downy ; length from two to three feet, and 
from three to eight or nine inches broad. Sheaths smooth, 
embracing the stems completely ; ligula ovate, obtuse, 
entire, villous,  Petioles (1 mean the space between the 
ligula and leaf), about three inches ‘long and channelled. — 
_ Racemes terminal, solitary, erect, always simple ; from six to 
twelve inches long. Peduncle round, and villous, Pedicels 
. short, villous, one-flowered, the largest sometimes droop a 
little from the weight of the flowers. Involucre of two, or 
three, caducous, hoat-shaped leaves embracing the raceme, 
Flowers very large, a pure smooth shining white, except the 
inner border, or labium; which is a beautiful mixture of 
orange and crimson. Bractes, (or inferior calyx), gibbous, 
bursting on one side to the base, and partially on the other. 
- superior, one-leafed, gibbous, length of the braete, 
