38 monandriv monogvnm. Amomum. 



white ; from which descend, and spread, many fleshy fibres. 

 Stems about biennial, several rising obliquely to the height of 

 from two to four feet, about as thick as a stout ratan, invested 

 in the smooth, deep green sheaths of the leaves. Leaves al- 

 ternate, bifarious, short petioled on their smooth stem-clasp- 

 ino- sheaths ; from broad-lanceolate below, to narrow-lanceo- 

 late at top, entire and smooth on both sides; point long, and 

 very fine; from six to twelve inches long. Spikes radical, 

 sessile, oblong, appearing amongst tin stems, half immersed 

 in the earth, loosely imbricated with one-flowered, lanceolate, 

 acute, villous, nervous, scariose, ash coloured bractes; when • 

 old their brittle tops are often broken off. Bractes ; besides 

 the exterior one-flowered ones, just mentioned, there is an 

 inner, striated, downy, scariose, two-toothed, tubular one, 

 (which 1 have sometimes considered an exterior and inferior 

 calyx, and which KSnig sometimes called an involucre,) in- 

 serted round the base of the germ. Flowers opening in suc- 

 cession, and not very conspicuous. Calyx clavate, tubular, 

 downy, three-toothed, length of the tube of the corol. Tube 

 of the corol, slender, and slightly incurved. Exterior border 

 of three subequal pellucid divisions. Ltp, or inner border, 

 rather longer than tin exterior great border, somewhat three- 

 lobed, withacrenate, curled marghi ; middle lobe yellow, with 

 two rosy hues leading up toil from the mouth of the tube. Fi- 

 /amr/i/se,\\(i\\ hall'solono-as the border of the corol, incurv- 

 ed over the mouth of the tube. There is a slender subulate 

 born on each side of the base of the filament, and nearly its 

 length. Anther double, large, fleshy, with a large, three-lob- 

 ed, concave crest; infundibuliform stigma rising through a 

 deep groove between the two polleniferous lobes. Germ be- 

 neath, downy, and crowned with the two nectarial scales, 

 within the base of the tube of the corol ; in this species they 

 are short, and truncated. 



Obs. The seeds are to the taste agreeably aromatic, and 

 are used by the Malays as a substitute for the true Cardamo- 

 mum of Malabar. 



