Alpinia. monandria monogynia. 67 



sperm. — Embri/o an invested crescent, with the cyllndiic radicle de- 

 scending from the convex side through the pit at the base of the pe- 

 risperm to the umbilicus. 



Obs. This is also a very elegant species, and holds a middle rank 

 between jiufans and calcarata. 



7. A. calcarata. Roscoe in Trans, of Linn. Soc 8. 347. 



Leaves linear-lanceolar, polished. Spike compound, erect. Lip 

 ovate-oblong, apex curled, and bifid. 



Renealmia calcarata. Andr. Bat. Repos. 6. t. 421. 



A native of China, and from thence introduced by Captain J. Gar- 

 nault, into the Botanic Garden near Calcutta in 1 799 ; where it thrives 

 luxuriantly in the common soil of the garden, and blossoms in 

 March, April, and May, but mme or less all the year. 



JSoo^ perennial, horizontal, somewhat woolly, crooked, pale-colour- 

 ed, stoloniferous, fragrant, enveloped while young m short, alternate 

 sheaths ; when old marked with their cicatrices ; and furnished with 

 many fleshy ramous fibres. — Stems oblique, smooth, from two to four 

 feet high. — Leaves alternate, bifarious, short-petioled on their sheaths, 

 narrow-lanceolar, fine-pointed, entire, smooth on both sides ; length 

 frequently twelve inches, and the breadth from one to two. — Sheaths 

 of the leaves stem-clasping, smooth, with a stipulary process project- 

 ing above the insertion of the leaf. — Racemes terminal, solitary, erect, 

 compound. — F/ort'ers numerous, large, generally in pairs or more, but 

 expanding at different periods. — Bractes solitary, boat-shaped, white, 

 one-tlowered. — Perianth superior, three-toothed, white, smooth. — 

 CoroZ with double border. Exterior three-cleft] divisions equal, linear, 

 expanding, pellucid, white. Interior, or Up ovate-oblong, large, deep- 

 ly coloured with dark purple veins on a yellow ground, apex two- 

 lobed, lobes rounded and curled ; there are no lateral lobes in this 

 species, nor are the sides much incurved; but two, incurved, sharp, 

 subulate horns project from its two posterior angles and embrace the 

 base of the filament. — Filament single, opposite to the lip of the 

 covol, projecting, &c. as iathe genus, — Germ spherical, hairy, three- 



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