CURCUMA.] SCITAMINECE. 233 



subobtuse, white. Lip 1J-2 in. broad, suddenly contracted into a 

 short claw ; lobes short, rounded. Stamen 1 in. long ; anther about 

 J in. Capsule oblong, glabrous, the valves orange-yellow within. 

 Seeds with a crimson aril. 



Dehra Dun (Duthie). Flowers during the rains. DISTRIB. : Through- 

 out India from the Himalaya and the Khasia Hills southwards to 

 Chittagong, Bengal, Kanara, Konkan and Ceylon, extending to 

 Malay Pen. and Islands. See Kew Bulletin (No. 9, 1912) for an 

 account of the fibre yielded by this and allied species of Hedychium, 

 and of its value as a material for paper-making. See also Watt's 

 "Comm. Products of India" p. 776. 



3. CURCUMA, Linn. ; FJ. Brit. Ind. vi, 209. 



Stemless herbs with tuberous rootstocks bearing sessile and 

 long-stipitate tubers. Leaves usually oblong, often very large. 

 Flowers usually in dense compound spikes, vernal or sestival and 

 preceding the leaves or autumnal and coetaneous, crowned by a 

 coma of enlarged coloured bracts ; lower bracts ovate, membran- 

 ous, enclosing several bracteolate fugitive flowers which open in 

 succession. Calyx short, cylindric, minutely toothed. Corolla- 

 tube funnel-shaped ; segments usually ovate or oblong ; upper 

 longer, somewhat concave. Stamen 1, perfect, filament short, 

 anther not crested ; cells contiguous, spurred at the base ; lateral 

 sbaminodes oblong, petaloid, connate with the filament ; lip orbi- 

 cular, with a defbxed tip. Ovary 3-celled, style filiform ; stigma 

 2-lipped, the lips ciliate ; ovules many, on axile placentas. Fruit 

 a tardily dehiscent globose membranous 3-valved capsule. Seeds 

 ovoid or oblong, usually arillate. Species about 40, mostly in 

 S. E. Asia. 



C. angustlfolia, p O xb. in As. Res. xi, 338, t.J ; Fl Ind. i, 31. 

 Koyle III 357, 359 ; F. B. I. vi, 210 ; Watt E. D. ; Collett FL SimL 

 512 ; Prain Beng. PL 1041. Vern. Tikhur.ft. Indian Arrow- 

 root. 



Eootstock small, emitting long fleshy fibres terminating in pale oblong 

 pendulous tubers Leaves (with petiole) 1-1J ft. ; blade lanceolate, 

 acute J-l ft. long. FL spike lateral, apart from and usually appear- 

 ing earlier than the leafy spike, crowned by several enlarged empty 

 pink bracts. Flowers yellow, longer than their bracts, 3 or 4 

 together in the axil of each bract opening in succession and quickly 



