Curcuma. monandria monogynia. 29 



parallel veins ; of an uniform dark-green, with the nerves or 

 ribs red, from twelve to twenty-four inches long, by live or 

 six broad. Petioles and sheaths channelled, smooth, and of 

 a deep red colour; a projecting- process on the inside marks, 

 in all this natural order, the limit of the sheath, and the be- 

 ginning of the petiole. Scape radical, lateral, cylindric, 

 about six inches long, invested in several, dark reddish 

 sheaths. Spike tufted, five or six inches long, erect. Coma 

 less deeply coloured than in Zeruinbet. Bractes, or scales 

 of the spike exactly as in the other species, each embracing 

 four or five flowers, which expand in succession. Flowers 

 small, bright yellow, rather longer than their bractes, fra- 

 grant. Tube of the corol slender, its mouth completely shut 

 with three villous, yellow glands. Fruit not seen in a ripe 

 state. 



Obs. The ovate oblong-, pendnlous tubers of several spe- 

 cies of Curcuma, yield a very beautiful, pure starch, like 

 the Arrow-root, produced from Maranta arundinacea and 

 Tacca piunati/ida, which the natives of the countries where 

 the plants grow, prepare and eat. In Travancore, where 

 some of these species abound, this flour, or starch, forms, I 

 am told, a large part of the diet of the inhabitants. My 

 C. anfjustijblia is another species which yields the same sub- 

 stance ; and I have no doubt but the pendulous tubers of this 

 species yield it also, and equally good. 



Since writing the above, I have received from Chittagong, 

 Bhagulporc, and Mirzapore, plants of three other sorts, all 

 employed for the same purpose. 



9. C. comosa. R. 



Bulbs large, oval, inwardly pale ochraceous. Spikes cla- 

 vate ; fertile bractes of a pale pink colour ; coma copious and 

 rosy. Leaves broad-lanceolar ; a faint ferruginous cloud 

 above the middle of the earliest ones ; every other part green. 



A native of Burma. From Rangoon Mr. Felix Carey sent 

 plants to the Botanic garden at Calcutta, where they thrive 



