156. ZINGIBERACE.E. [7. Zingiber. 



3. Z. officinale. Rose. Adrak, H.; Ginger. 



Rhizome stout tuberous with erect leafy stems 2-4 ft. high. Leaves 

 narrow, distichous, subsessile on the sheaths, linear-lanceolate, 

 •4- -8" wide, glabrous. Flowers greenish with a small dark purple or 

 purplish-black lip, in radical spikes 1-5-3" long and 1" diam. on pedun- 

 cles 0-12" long. Stamen dark purple, as long as the lip, rather shorter 

 than the corolla. 



Cultivated occasionally ! Fl. r.s.-Oct. But it very rarely flowers. 



4. Z. zerumbet, Smith. Pharo, Uraon ; Makabari-bach, //. 



Leafy stems 3-4 ft., oval in section, with 8-12 leaves each side, 

 middle ones larger, 12-15" by 3-3-5", elliptic-lanceolate (oblong-lanc, 

 Baker), ending in a short finely acuminate tip under -5" long, base 

 rounded, beneath rather paler and very thinly silky when young, 

 more or less permanently so on the sulcate midrib, sec. n. very oblique 

 and numerous. Petiole -2" and upper part of sheath somewhat 

 yellow-silky; ligule - 5-1", rounded. Flowers very pale nearly uniform 

 yellow, 1-8" long, tubular- ventricose, exserted •5--8" from the elhp- 

 soid-oblong green head, which is borne on a peduncle 9-10" long 

 clothed with sheathing tubular bracts. Lip Avith lateral lobes sul)- 

 orbicular -6- -7" diam. (when spread out), thin, wrinkled, nearly as 

 long as the corolla, many -nerved, mid-lobe deeply emarginate or 

 lobed, lateral lobes broad and rounded, three -fourths as long, wrinkled. 



Palamau jungles ! Cultivated in Ranchi ! Fl. Aug.-Sept. Probably also 

 wild in other forest districts. 



Rhizome resembling that of the ginger, whitish outside, pale-yellow inside. 

 Leaves described by Baker as glabrous, probably from old specimens. Spikes or 

 heads 2 -5-3 -5" long by 1-5-1-7" diam. when young, Baker says 3-4", but the 

 spikes gradually elongate with age as in other species. Sheathing tubular imbricate 

 bracts with cuspidate tip, that at base of head large ovate or paraboloid, 1 -5", with 

 cuspidate tip, flowering truncately sub-orbicular with apiculate tip and hyaline 

 hirsute margin, the hairs deciduous. Wrapping the flower is an inner hyaline 

 bract 1" long with rounded tip. Calyx • 75", sheathing, very hyaline, tip rounded 

 entire with a few hyaline hairs, base and ovary sparsely hairy. Corolla-tubes 

 slender tubular, ■ 7". Upper corolla segment broader than the two others, 7-nerved, 

 others lanceolate acute 3-nerved. Stamen -6- -7". Fil. very short and broad, 

 minutely puberulous. Connective -17" broad, beak with incurved edges, shorter 

 than the cells, which reach three-fourths of the way up. Stigma surrounded by 

 a ring of hairs. 



The rhizome appears to be used in the same way as ginger. 



5. Z. casumunar, Roxb. 



A large aromatic herb, taller but mere slender than the preceding 

 with the leafy stems 4-5 ft. high, base Avith sheaths or small leaves, 

 the margins of the sheaths very pubescent. Leaves very numerous 

 on each side, lanceolate to linear-oblong, lower spreading nearly at 

 right angles from the stem, 9" by 1-7" to 12" by 2" in our area (in the 

 Tarai and Duars they attain 20" by 2-5-3"), pubescent beneath, or 

 midrib hairy and very few scattered hairs on the blade ; petiole and 

 edges of sheath hairy, ligule of 2 small lateral auricles and a line of 

 hairs between. Head cylindrical, becoming conical Avith age, 3-8" 

 long with closely imbricating broad bracts pubescent on the edges and 

 usually stout peduncles (see var.) 3-8" long Avith tubular sheaths. 

 FloAvers 1 • 5" long (above the ovary), corolla segments • 75", the upper- 



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