112 



AMOMUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM, SONNERAT. 



1863. 



*** Scapi 'breves, obconici, capitati, 10-15-^m. Folia glalra. 



8. A. Citratum, Pereira, Pharm. Journ. and Trans, ix. 313. 1 

 Foliis elongatis, oblongo- v. obovato-lanceolatis, breviter acum- 

 inatis, petiolatis, scapis crassis, bracteis superioribus margine 

 crispatis, labello amplo erecto, fructu obovoideo limbo lato perian- 

 thii persistente continue coronato, seminibus obscure angulatis 

 tuberculatisque, apice breviter conico productis. 



Hob. Gaboon River. 



1872. 



Fruits. 



Sonnerat. 



Jxmgouze. 



NOTE ON AMOMUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM, SONNERAT. 



(Read before the Linnean Society, December 7, 1871.) 



THE fruits which I now lay before the Society are those of 

 Amomum angustifolium, Sonnerat, ripened in my hot-house at 

 Clapham during the past autumn. 



This species of Amomum was collected by Sonnerat in Mada- 

 gascar, and described and figured in his Voyage aux Indes Orien- 

 tales et a la Chine, published in 1782. It was cultivated in the 

 Calcutta Botanical Garden by Roxburgh, who states that plants 

 of it were brought thither from Mauritius in 1802. An excel- 

 lent coloured drawing is in the Roxburgh Collection now at Kew, 



Bojer, in his Hortus Mauritianus published in 183 7, mentions, 

 as occurring in Mauritius, a plant which he calls Amomum nemo- 

 rosum or Longouze. That this is the same species as the A. 

 angustifolium of Sonnerat, I have ascertained by means of a 

 good suite of specimens and coloured drawings transmitted to 

 me several years ago by M. Emile Fleurot, of that island. 

 Bouton, in his Medicinal Plants of Mauritius (1857), assigns 

 to the Longouze its correct name of Amomum angustifolium, 

 Sonnerat. He asserts that it was brought originally from Mada- 

 gascar ; but in a letter to me under date May 6, 1861, he 

 remarks that it " is positively a native of Mauritius, where it 

 grows abundantly in marshy places." 



My plant was raised from seeds sent from Mauritius to the 



1 As no description of this species has yet been published, we include its 

 diagnosis in the present paper. 



