66 MONANDRIA MONOGYNlA. Alphlia. 



four inches long. SJieaths smooth, ending in a rounded ligula, above 

 the insertion of the leaf. — Racemes termma], erect, compound, coni- 

 cal, many-flowered : peduncles a little downy. Pedicels alternate, 

 short, villous, two, three, or even four-flowered. — Bractes of the 

 pedicels, and pedicelli solitary, oblong, caducous.' — Flowers numer- 

 ous, large, drooping. — Cct/yr longer than the tube of the corol, widen- 

 ing from the base ; mouth irregularly three-toothed, with the lower 

 Assure deepest, pure white. Corol. Tube much recurved, mucli 

 shorter than the calyx ; border double. Exterior three-parted ; stipe- 

 rior divisions incumbent, oval, concave, inferior two smaller, linear 

 oblong, narrower than the superior one; all are obtuse and of a pure 

 glossy white colour. Lip or inner border , large, elegantly variegated 

 with crimson and yellow, surrounded with an orange-coloured edg- 

 ing; three-lobed ; the two lateral lobes simi-lunar and incurved into a 

 large sub-campanulate tube under the upper segment of the exterior 

 border ; exterior lobe smaller,curled, and bifid. In this species there 

 are no spurs between its base and the filament, as in most of the other 

 species of this genus. — Filament nearly as long as the broad double 

 anther, which projects over the middle of the lip. — Germ round, vil- 

 lous, thre^-celled, with many ovtilu in each attached to the partitions 

 near the axis. 57/y/e filiform, embraced at the base by a single, truncate, 

 dentate, glandular body, (nectary of Kdnig, Retzius, and Willdenow.) 

 Sligma funnel-shaped, ciliate, rising with a curve through the bifid a- 

 pexofthe anther. — Capsule berried, size of a large gooseberry, deep 

 orange, or yellovr, according to their state of maturity ; not openuig 

 spontaneously as in A. nutans, when dry, wrinkled, and a little hai- 

 ry. — Seeds numerous, angular, arilled. Aril complete, but thin, and 

 •when perfectly dry scarcely traceable. Integuments two ; exterior thm, 

 inner dark brown, and soong^y .— Per isperm cartilaginous, a deep 

 pit at the base, and a deep cleft from the apex down to near the mid- 

 dle. Vitellus as in Alpinia malaccensis, in the centre of each of the 

 superior lobes of the perisperm, is a somewhat clearer, distinct body, 

 as if a continuation of the horns of the crescent of the embryo, but 

 perfectly distinct, and readily separable from them, and the peri- 



