OSTUS.] SCITAMINECE. 235 



Z. capitatum, Roxb. in Asial. Res. xi, 348 ; Fl. Ind. i, 55 ; 

 F. B. I. vi, 248; Prain Beng. PL 1045.- Vern. Jangli-adraJc. 



Rootstock of many long-stalked oval tubers with a spicy fragrance. 

 Stems slender, leafy, 3-4 ft. high. Leaves 12-18 in. long, linear, 

 acuifcinate, ascending, usually pubescent beneath. Spike terminal, 

 sessile, or somewhat prolonged beyond the sheaths of the upper 

 leaves, erect or oblong-cylindric, 3-6 in. long ; bracts closely im- 

 bricate, 1J in. long, ovate, green with a narrow brown edge. Cor.- 

 tube as long as the bract, segments pale-yellow. Lip pale-yellow, 

 not spotted ; midlobe in. broad, orbicular, emarginate ; basal 

 auricles large, oblong, obtuse. Capsule bright-red, size of small 

 olive, valves ovate. Seeds black, shining ; aril large, lacerate, white. 



Dehra Dun (Duthie), Banda (Edgew.), Gorakhpur (Burkill). Flowers 

 in rains. DISTRIB. : Central Himal. from Kumaon to Sikkim ; also 

 Khasia Hills, Sylhet, Ch. Nagpur, and Chanda in Cent. Prov. 



Z. OFFICINALE, Rose. ; Roxb. FL Ind. t, 47 ; F. B. I. vi, 246 ; Watt 

 E. D. ; Comm. Prod. Ind. 1139 ; Duthie in Field and Gard. Crops, 

 part Hi, 47, t. 100 ; Kanjildl For. FL (ed. 2) 405 ; Prain Beng. 

 PL 1045 ; Cooke FL Bomb, ii, 736. Vern. Adrak (fresh root), sunt 

 (when dry) Ginger. A herb, with horizontal jointed tuberous 

 zhizomes. Stems slender, 3-4 ft. high. Leaves 6-12 in. long, lan- 

 ceolate, glabrous beneath. Bracts suborbicular, cuspidate. Cor.- 

 lobes green Lip and stamen purplish-black. The ginger plant is 

 much cultivated in Dehra Dun and throughout the Sub-Himalayan 

 tracts of Rohilkhand and N. Oudh, and elsewhere in India. It has 

 also been extensively introduced in the tropics of both hemispheres. 

 The plant is known to have been grown in /India and China for many 

 centuries, but there is no record of its having been found in a truly 

 wild condition. The usual vegetative mode of cultivating the ginger 

 plant has brought about a tendency to cause sterility as in Musa 

 and Citrus. 



6. COSTUS. Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 249. 



Herbs with long leafy stems ; root stock tuberous, horizontal. 

 Leaves oblong, with broad sheaths. Flowers in dense globose or 

 ovoid usually terminal spikes. Calyx short, funnel-shaped ; 

 teeth 3, ovate. Corolla-tube not longer than the calyx ; segments 

 large, oblong, subequal. Lip large, obovate with incurved margins. 

 .Stamen 1 perfect, filament forming -with the connective an oblong 

 .petaloid process with the contiguous linear anther-cells situated 

 .in its middle ; lateral staminodes minute or obsolete. Ovary 3-celled, 



