~ 
Alpinia, MONANDRIA MONOGYNIAL © = is 7H 
four inches broad, Sheaths villous, rising in an obtuse ligu- 
la above the insersion of the leaf. Spikes radical, oblong, 
laxly imbricated, rising but little above the earth ; lower part, 
or scape hid in the soil, and clothed with shorter scariose 
bractes, Flowers numerous, large, red, fragrant. Bractes ; 
exterior, one under each flower, lanceolate, ribbed, smooth, 
yellowish pink; interior, or inferior perianth tubular, length 
of the proper perianth. Calya superior, length of the tube. 
of the corol, tubular, with three-toothed, coloured apex. 
Corol; tube cylindric, long and slender; segments of the 
border linear-oblong, obtuse. Lip with pretty broad cor- 
date base, from thence tapering to its entire obtuse point, 
much longer than the segment of the exterior border ; mar-. 
gins curled. Filament, anther, germ, style, stigma, and nec~ 
tarial bodies, as in the genus. Capsules pretty long-pedi-. 
celled, ovate-oblong, while fresh above an inch and a half. 
long, and nearly one in diameter, somewhat three-lobed, each» 
angle marked with a larger vertical wing, and two smaller. 
on the flatter sides, between the large ones, three-celled.. 
Seeds numerous, obovate, with a groove on one side, In- 
teguments two; exterior soft, while fresh it may be called the 
succulent aril; interior white and rugose. Perisperm con- 
form to the seed, white, and friable, perforated by a spongy,’ 
brown substance above the embryo. Vitellus somewhat hy- 
aline, rising on each side of the perforation like two horns, 
Embryo sub-clavate, its small end lodged at the umbilicus. — 
Obs. The form of the capsule, which resembles that of 
Geertner’s Zinziber Ensal, and the acrid, aromatic taste of 
the seeds, induce to conclude that this is the plant which pro- 
duces the en medium of the writers on ‘Materia 
——— < pager ‘Vestn 
