ZINGIBERACEjE. 



furnished with a small tooth at the base on each side. Filament 

 linear, scarcely prolonged beyond the emarginate anther. Cap- 

 sule berried, 3-celled. Seeds few or numerous, arilled. Plants 

 with thick tuberous horizontal roots. Stems many, perennial. 

 Leaves bifarious, lanceolate, with a slit ligulate sheath. In- 

 florescence panicled, or in loose racemes or spikes, terminal. 

 Blume. 



1201. A. Galanga Swartz. obs. bot. 8. Rose, in Linn, trans. 

 viii. 34-5. Roxb. fl. ind. i. 59. N. and E. handb. i. 255. * 

 (Rumph. v. t. 63.) Sumatra ; cultivated hi the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. 



Tubers faintly aromatic, strongly pungent, like a mixture of pepper 

 and ginger, accompanied with some degree of bitterness. Stems peren- 

 nial, or at least more durable than those of herbaceous plants, nearly 

 erect, round, smooth, about 6 or 7 feet high when in flower, and as 

 thick as a slender walking-cane, invested with leafless sheaths up to the 

 middle. Leaves short-stalked, bifarious, lanceolate, white, and some- 

 what callous at the margin, smooth, from 12 to 24 inches long, and 

 from 4 to 6 broad ; ligula short, rounded, ciliate. Panicle terminal, 

 erect, oblong, spreading, dichotomous ; each division with from 2 to 

 pale, greenish, somewhat fragrant flowers. Calyx smooth, white, 

 scarcely the length of the corolla, 1-toothed. Corolla ; exterior limb 

 of 3, nearly equal, linear, recurved, smooth, pale, greenish divisions ; 

 inner, unguiculate, somewhat ascending, so as nearly to meet the 

 slightly declining anther, oval or ovate-oblong, concave, deeply 2-lobed, 

 minutely laciniate, white, with here and there a small reddish speck ; 

 2 recurved, fleshy, coloured teeth at the base of the claw. Filament 

 rather longer than the claw. Apex of anther deeply emarginate, pro- 

 jecting horizontally over the middle of the lip. Ovary smooth, oval, 

 3-sided, 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell attached to the middle of 

 the dissepiment. Style filiform. Stigma funnel-shaped, fringed : cap- 

 sule the size of a small cherry, obovate, smooth, deep orange-red, 

 3-celled, indehiscent, externally fatiscent. Seed 1, rarely 2 in each 

 cell, much compressed, deep chesnut-colour, wrinkled, the size of a 

 grain of black pepper. Aril enveloping the whole seed except the apex, 

 thin, rather foliaceous, dull white. Testa thick, hard, spongy internally. 

 Albumen white, friable, and very hard. Embryo simple, dull white, 

 roundish, in the body of the albumen, and with the narrow, conical 

 radicle passing through it, and pointing to the hilum. The roots are 

 the Galanga major of the druggists, a pungent acrid aromatic, forming a 

 kind of substitute for ginger. 



1202. Besides the larger Galanga, there is a Galanga minor 

 which according to Fee is very much smaller and has more ener- 

 getic properties than the former and which comes from China 

 and the Philippines. It is not known what plant produces it. 



1203. Renealmia exaltata Linn, suppl. 7- Alpinia exaltata 

 Meyer esseq. 4. A. tubulata Bot. Reg. t. 777. A plant sup- 

 posed to be at least related to this, if not identical, and called 



* The plant figured in Nees v. Esenbeck's medical plants as A. Galanga, is said by Dr. 

 Blume to be Alpinia pyramidata. 



568 



