A Ne ieee eS 
— Costus.] SCITAMINE@, — 235 
Z. eapitatum, Roxb. in Asiat. Res. xi, 348; Fl. Ind. i, 55; 
F. B. I. vi, 248+; Prain Beng. Pl. 1045.—Vern. Jangli-adrak. 
-Rootstock of many long-stalked oval tubers with a spicy fragrance. 
Stems slender, leafy, 3-4 ft. high. Leaves 12-18 in. long, linear, 
acuminate, ascending, usually pubescent beneath. Spike terminal, 
sessile, or somewhat prolonged beyond the sheaths of the upper 
leaves, erect or oblong-cylindric, 3-6 in. long; bracts closely im- 
bricate, 14 in. long, ovate, green with a narrow brown edge. Cor.- 
tube as long as the bract, segments pale-yellow. Lip pale-yellow, © 
not spotted; midlobe ? in. broad, orbicular, emarginate; basal 
auricles large, oblong, obtuse. Capsule bright-red, size of small 
olive, valves ovate. Seeds black, shining ; aril large, lacerate, white. 
Dehra Dun (Duthie), Banda (Edgew.), Gorakhpur (Burkill). Flowers 
in rains. Dzisrris.: Central Himal. from Kumaon to Sikkim ; also 
Khasia Hills, Sylhet, Ch. Nagpur, and Chanda in Cent. Prov. 
Z. OFFICINALE, Rosc. ; Roxb. Fl. Ind. i, 47; F. B. I. vi, 246 ; Watt 
E. D.; Comm. Prod. Ind, 1139 ; Duthie in Field and Gard. Crops, 
part wii, 47, t. 100; Kanjildl For. Fl. (ed. 2) 405; Prain Beng. 
Pl. 1045 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ti, 736.—Vern. Adrak (fresh root), sunt 
(when dry)—Ginger.—A herb, with horizontal jointed tuberous 
zhizomes. Stems slender, 3-4 ft. high. Leaves 6-12 in. long, lan- 
ceolate, glabrous beneath. Bracts suborbicular, cuspidate. Cor.- 
lobes green: Lip and stamen purplish-black.—The ginger plant is 
much cultivated in Dehra Dun and throughout the Sub-Himalayan 
tracts of Rohilkhand and N. Oudh, and elsewhere in India. It has 
also been extensively introduced in the tropics of both hemispheres. 
The plant is known to have been grown in India and China for many 
centuries, but there is no record of its having been found in a truly 
wild condition. The usual vegetative mode of cultivating the ginger 
plant has brought about a tendency to cause sterility as in Musa 
and Citrus. 
5. COSTUS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 249. 
Herbs with long leafy stems; rootstock tuberous, horizontal. 
Leaves oblong, with broad sheaths. Flowers in dense globose or 
ovoid usually terminal spikes. Calyx short, funnel-shaped ; 
teeth 3, ovate. Corolla-tube not longer than the calyx ; segments 
large, oblong, subequal. Lip large, obovate with incurved margins. 
Stamen | perfect, filament forming with the connective an oblong 
petaloid process with the contiguous linear anther-cells situated 
jn its middle ; lateral staminodes minute or obsolete. Ovary 3-celled, 
