: ; y 
Curcuma.] SCITAMINEG. . 233 
subobtuse, white. Lip 1}-2 in. broad, suddenly contracted into a 
short claw ; lobes short, rounded. Stamen 1; in. long ; anther about 
in. Capsule oblong, glabrous, the valves orange-yellow within. 
eeds with a crimson aril. 
Dehra Dun (Duthie). Flowers during the rains. Distr. : Through- 
out India from the Himalaya and the Khasia Hills southwards to 
Chittagong, Bengal, Kanara, Konkan and Ceylon, extending to 
Malay Pen. and Islands. See Kew Bulletin (No. 9, 1912) for an 
account of the fibre yielded by this and allied species of Hedychium, 
and of its value as a material for paper-making. See also Watt’s 
**Comm. Products of India” p. 776. 
8. CURCUMA, Linn.; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 209. 
Stemless herbs with tuberous rootstocks bearing sessile and 
Jong-stipitate tubers. Leaves usually oblong, often very large. 
Flowers usually in dense compound spikes, vernal or xstival and 
preceding the leaves or autumnal and coetaneous, crowned by a 
coma of enlarged coloured bracts ; lower bracts ovate, membran- 
ous, enclosing several bracteolate fugitive flowers which open in 
succession. Calyx short, cylindric, minutely toothed. Corolla- 
tube funnel-shaped ; segments usually ovate or oblong; upper 
longer, somewhat concave. Stamen 1, perfect, filament short, 
anther not crested ; cells contiguous, spurred at the base ; lateral 
staminodes oblong, petaloid, connate with the filament ; lip orbi- 
cular, with deflexed tip. Ovary 3-celled, style filiform ; stigma 
2-lipped, the lips ciliate; ovules many, on axile placentas. Fruit 
a tardily dehiscent globose membranous 3-valved capsule. Seeds 
ovoid or oblong, usually arillate——Species about 40, mostly in 
S. E. Asia. 
Cc. angustifolia, Roxb. in As. Res. xi, 338, t. 3; Fl. Ind. i, 31. 
Royle Ill. 357, 359 ; F. B. I. vi, 210 ; Watt EB. D.; Collett Fl. Siml. 
512; Prain Beng. Pl. 1041. Vern. Tikhur.—E. Indian Arrow- 
root. 
Rootstock small, emitting long fleshy fibres terminating in pale oblong 
pendulous tubers. Leaves (with petiole) 1-1} ft. ; blade lanceolate, 
acute 4-lft.long. Fl. spike lateral, apart from and usually appear- 
ing earlier than the leafy spike, crowned by several enlarged empty 
pink bracts. Flowers yellow, longer than their bracts, 3 or 4 
together in the axil of each bract opening in succession and quickly 
F 
