Curcuma. monandria monogynia. 89 



sheaths channelled, smooth, and of a deep red colour; a projecting 

 process on the hiside marks, in all this natural order, the limit of the 

 sheath, and the beginning of the petiole. — Scape, radical, lateral, cy- 

 lindric, about six inches long, invested in several, dark reddish sheaths. 

 Spike tufted, five or six inches long, erect -yComa less deeply co- 

 loured than in Zerunibet. — Brades, or scales of the spike exactly as 

 in the other species, each embracing four or five flowers, which ex- 

 pand in succession. — FluK'ers sma[\, bright yellow, rather longer than 

 their bractes, fragrant. — Tube of the corol slender, its mouth com- 

 pletely shut with three villous, yellow glands. — Fruit not seen in a 

 ripe state. 



Obs. The ovate oblong, pendulous tubers of several species of 

 Curcuma, yield a very beautiful, pure starch, like the Arrozv-root, 

 produced from Maranta arundinacea and Tacca piimatijida, which 

 the natives of the countries where the plants grow, prepare tftd 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. angustifolia is another species which yields the same sub- 

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

 cies yield it also, and equally good. 



Since writing the above, I have received from Chittagong, Bha- 

 gulpore, and Mirzapore, plants of three other sorts, all employed for 

 the same purpose. 



9. C. comosa. R. 



Bulbs large, oval, inwardly pale ochraceous. Spikes clavate ; fer- 

 tile 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 plant? to 

 the Botanic Garden at Cfl/cwif a, '^ij|tere they thrive well, and blos- 

 som in May, at which time it is by^^^he most beautiful, and the 

 largest of the genus, I have yet seen. ^^^ 



Bulbs very large, oval, inwardly of a paleol:hraceous colour. Pal' 

 mate tubers scarcely any. Fendulous tubers lanceolar, and connect- 



