The Liberian Flora 



ZINGIBERACE^ 



Aframomum melegueta, K. Schiim. {syn. Amomum melegueta, Roscoe) : 

 a perennial herb with distinct leaf- and flower-stems, leaf-stems 

 up to 5 ft. high with sessile or subsessile linear-lanceolate 

 caudate-acuminate glabrous blades, 7^1 1 in. by f — i in. ; flower- 

 stems 3 — 5 in. long, consisting of a short bracteate peduncle 

 and a single trumpet-shaped flower springing from a spike-like 

 cluster of bracts, white or pinkish with a large broad rounded 

 violet or pink lip ; berry bottle-shaped not grooved, 2 in. long, 

 with very aromatic seeds if in. across. — The seeds of this 

 species are known as " grana paradisi. Bentham (in F/ora 

 Nigritiana, p. 534) mentions that Vogel collected " Amomum 

 granum paradisi, L." near Grand Basa ; there is, however, no 

 specimen of V9gers from this locality at Kew. It is very likely 

 that Bentham, in this place, understood under " Amomum 

 granum paradisi, L." what is now called Afrainonium melegueta, 

 although he coupled with it, in the same passage, a specimen 

 collected by Vogel at Abo in Nigeria which is preserved at 

 Kew and is clearly not A. melegueta. 

 . sulcatum, K. Sclium. {syn. Amomum sulcatum, Oliv. and Hanb. 

 ex Baker) : similar to the preceding species, but with broader 

 leaves, an almost subsessile flower-spike and grooved fruits ; 

 Grand Basa, Benson, 17 ! ; Cape Palmas, Hoffmann, 14 ! Gibson ! 

 — The pulp of the berries is eaten. Vernacular name " Bla " 

 or " Ble." 

 latifolium, K. Sch. {syn. Amomum latifolium, Afz^ : leaf-stems 

 up to 3 ft. high with lanceolate leaves (10 in. by 2^ in.), 

 flower-stems with a peduncled spike of 3 — 4 white flowers and 

 berries almost 3 in. long ; Grand Basa, in //anbury's herbarium. 



I A. longiscapum, K. Sclium. {syn. Amomum longiscapum, //00k. f.) : leaf- 

 stems not quite i ft. high with lanceolate caudate-acuminate 

 blades with a cordate base, i ft. by 2 — 2| in., flower-stems 

 with long-peduncled (2 ft.) heads of 2 — 4 flowers with a crisp- 

 edged labellum, i J in. wide ; Cape Palmas, Sclwenlein. 



\*k. rostratum, K. Schum. {syn. Amomum cereum, Baker) : leaf-stem 

 up to 6 ft. high and more, with densely crowded lanceolate 



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