ZINGIBERACEJE. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 322. 



ZINGIBER. 



Corolla with the outer limb 3-parted, inner 1-lipped. Fila- 

 ment lengthened beyond the anther into a simple incurved beak. 

 Capsule 3-celled, 3-valved. Seeds numerous, with arils. 

 Rhizomata tuberous, articulated, creeping. Stems annual, en- 

 closed in the sheaths of distichous leaves. Leaves membranous. 

 Spikes cone-shaped, radical or rarely terminal, solitary, consist- 

 ing of 1 -flowered imbricated bracts. Blume. 



1182. Z. officinale Roscoe in Trans. Linn. Soc. viii. 348. 

 Roxb. Fl. Ind. i. 47. N. and E. handb. i. 238. pi. med. t. 61. 

 (Rumph. v. t. 66. f. 1. Rheede xi. t. 12.) Cultivated all 

 over the tropics of Asia and America ; where wild not known. 

 (Ginger.) 



Rhizoma tuberous, biennial. Stems erect, and oblique, invested by 

 the smooth sheaths of the leaves ; generally 3 or 4 feet high, and annual. 

 Leaves sub-sessile on their long sheaths, bifarious, linear-lanceolate, 

 very smooth above, and nearly so underneath ; sheaths smooth, crowned 

 with a bifid ligula. Scapes radical, solitary, a little removed from the 

 stems, from 6 to 12 inches high, enveloped in a few obtuse sheaths, the 

 uppermost of which sometimes end in tolerably long leaves. Spikes 

 oblong, the size of a man's thumb. Exterior bracts imbricated, 

 1-flowered, obovate, smooth, membranous at the edge, faintly striated 

 lengthwise ; interior enveloping the ovary, calyx, and the greater part of 

 the tube of the corolla. Flowers rather small, when compared with the 

 rest of this natural order. Calyx tubular, opening on one side, 3-toothed. 

 Corolla with a double limb ; outer of 3, nearly equal,oblong segments ; 

 inner a 3-lobed lip, of a dark purple colour. Sterile stamens subulate. 

 Filament short. Anther oblong, double, crowned with a long, curved, ta- 

 pering grooved horn. Ovary oval, 3-celled, with many ovules in each; 

 style filiform ; stigma funnel-shaped, ciliate, lodged just under the apex 

 of the horn of the anther. This is the plant that produces Ginger, 

 which is prepared from the rhizoma. The young tender shoots of this 

 part are preserved in sugar, the older are scalded, scraped, dried and 

 become the white ginger root of the shops ; if scalded without being 

 scraped it becomes black ginger. One of the most valuable of aromatic s, 

 carminative, stimulant, sialagogue. Used in flatulent colic, dyspepsia, 

 gout, debility and torpor of the system. 



1 1 83. Z. Zerumbet Roscoe in Linn. Trans, viii. 348. N. andE. 

 handb. i. 240. pi. med. t. 62. Fee cours. i. 348. (Rheede 

 ii. t. 13.) East Indies; wild in woods about Calcutta; rare in 

 moist places in Java. 



559 



