ELETTARIA. 



erect, 2 or 3 inches long. Bracts solitary, oblong, smooth, membranous, 

 striated, sheathing, 1 at each joint of the scape. Flowers alternae, short- 

 stalked, solitary at each joint of the racemes, opening in succession as the 

 racemes lengthen. Calyx funnel-shaped, 3-toothedat the mouth, about 

 § of an inch" long, striated with fine veins, permanent. Tube of corolla 

 slender, as long as the calyx; limb double, exterior of 3, oblong, 

 concave, nearly equal, pale greenish-white divisions ; inner lip obovate, 

 much longer than the exterior divisions, somewhat curled at the edge, 

 with the apex slightly 3-lobed, marked chiefly in the centre, with purple 

 violet stripes. Filament short, erect. Anther double, emarginate. 

 Ovary oval, smooth. Style slender. Stigma funnel-shaped. Capsule 

 oval, somewhat 3-sided, size of a small nutmeg, 3-celled, 3-valved. 

 Seeds coriaceous and pale-brown, many, blackish. — The seeds are 

 gratefully aromatic and pungent with a flavour of camphor, and are 

 esteemed more agreeable and useful in food and medicine than any 

 others of this natural order. They are reckoned carminative and 

 stomachic, and are employed very generally to give warmth to other 

 medicines. According to Mr. White they are " one of the most 

 valuable articles of modern luxury, regarded as a necessary of life by 

 most of the inhabitants of Asia, a grateful and salubrious accessory of 

 diet, &c." They enter into a considerable number of pharmaceutical 

 compounds, as adjuvants, but the only preparation that derives its name 

 from them is the Tinctura cardamomi composita. Pereira. 



1200. E. Cardamomum medium N. and E. handb. i. 252. — 

 Alpinia Cardamomum medium Roxb. ji. ind. i. 74. — Hilly 

 country in the neighbourhood of Sylhet where the plant is called 

 Do-Keswa. 



Leaves stalked above their sheaths, lineaivlanceolate, downy under- 

 neath, from 2 to 3 feet long, by 2 to 4 inches broad ; sheaths villous, 

 ending in an obtuse ligula above the insertion of the leaf. Spikes 

 radical, oblong, laxly imbricated, rising but little above the earth ; 

 lower part hid in the soil, and clothed with shorter scariose scales. 

 Flowers numerous, large, red, fragrant. Bracts lanceolate, ribbed, 

 smooth, yellowish-pink. Calyx length of the tube of the corolla, 

 tubular, with a 3-toothed coloured apex. Tube of corolla cylindrical, 

 long and slender ; its segments linear-oblong, obtuse. Lip with a 

 pretty broad cordate base, from thence tapering to its entire obtuse 

 point, much longer than the segment of the exterior border ; margin 

 curled. Capsules on rather long pedicels, ovate-oblong, while fresh 

 above ]i inch long, and nearly 1 in diameter, somewhat 3-lobed, each 

 angle marked with a larger vertical wing, and 2 smaller on the flatter 

 sides, between the large ones, 3-celled. Seeds numerous, obovate witli 

 a groove on one side. — The form of the capsule and the acrid aromatic 

 taste of the seeds induce me to conclude that this is the plant which 

 produces the Cardamomum medium of writers on Materia Medica. 

 Roxb. Mr. Pereira finds in the shops a cardamom called Semina 

 Cardamomi majora, or wild Cardamoms from Calcutta which he thinks 

 may belong to this species. 



ALPINIA. 



Tube of corolla short ; inner limb 1-lipped, either toothless or 

 567 o o 4 



