In the group of plants before noticed as radical flowering Alpinias, is the celebrated plant which 
produces the Cardamom of the shops, and which is cultivated in India to a great extent, and forms a 
considerable article of commerce. Of this plant I had hoped to have given a figure in the present work, 
it having grown for many years, and there being now one in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, probably 
the finest plant in the kingdom; but this plant has never yet produced its flowers with us, nor are we 
certain that it has ever flowered beyond the limits of Asia. Deprived therefore of the opportunity of examining 
the flowers in a living state, we are compelled to refer to such authors as have themselves seen it, and 
particularly to the figures and description of Dr. Roxburgh in the 3rd vol. of Corom. Plants, No. 226, and 
to those of Mr. David White in Linnean Trans. vel. x. p. 229, from which, and especially from the latter, 
it is evident this plant cannot be considered as an Alpinia, or as uniting with any other genus of the 
Monandrian tribe than ipa being described and figured by Mr. White as having a double calyx, one 
below, and the other above the germen, a naked anther, with no filament, but with its conical points free, 
and projecting into the mouth of the corolla, and an obtusely triangular stigma, all characters strikingly 
different from Alpinia, which has a strong erect filament, covering the anther at the back, and an open cup- 
shaped stigma, characters demonstrating discrepancies between the genera which it is impossible to reconcile. 
That this plant cannot be either an Alpinia or an Amomum, ‘has been fully shown by Dr. Maton, (in 
his remarks on the dissertation of Mr. White in Trans. Lin. Soc. vol. x. p. 249) where he has constituted 
it a new genus, under the name of Elettaria, (from Elettari, the original Malabar appellation . given in 
the Hort. Malabar,) a name which has been adopted by Sir J. E. Smith, (in Rees’s Cyclop. supplement in 
loco.) But if further inquiries should confirm our foregoing suggestions, and the plant in question should 
prove to be properly comprised under the established Linnean genus of Renealmia, we shall have the 
pleasure of seeing two of the finest plants in the East and West included in the same genus, with the 
addition of several other plants, which will render it one of the most important and beautiful of the whole 
system. 
We are greatly confirmed in the opinions we have adopted on this subject, by the judicious observations 
in the Botanical Register accompanying the figure there given of Alpinia tubulata, tab. 777, (undoubtedly 
the Renealmia ewxaltata of the present work,) where it is said that the flower is more strictly tubular and 
proportionally longer than in that group, (the terminally flowering Alpinias) that the anther is sessile, instead 
of being elevated by the filament, that the inflorescence terminates in a lateral scape, which is enveloped by 
sphacelately membranous sheaths, instead of a central stem enveloped by a green foliage, in which last 
circumstance, it is observed, ‘“ the plant probably coincides with Alpinia occidentalis, and the second section of 
the genus (or radical flowering Alpinias) as arranged in the Flora Indica of Roxburgh.” The editors then 
proceed to state, “that they have fixed the plant they have there given in its present place, (Alpinia) 
rather 
from an agreement in respect to the technical character of Alpinia, than from a conviction of the species 
being a good member of the group ;” but I trust that I have sufficiently shown that this plant, even in 
> 
its technical character, not only differs from Alpinia, but forms an important species of the genus Renealmia 
> 
as will appear by comparing the print given in the present work, with the figures of Dr. Roxburgh and Mr. 
White, of the true Cardamom plant of the East, before referred to. 
Mr. Andrews, in his Botanical Repository, disregarding the principle upon which the genera in the tribe 
of Scitaminea is founded, has given two plants as Renealmia, viz. vol. vy. fig. 360, Renealmia Nutan 1. 
S$, vol. vi. 
fig. 421, Reneulmia Calcarata, both of which will be found, on examination 
7 
to be Alpinias, and as such are 
given in the present work. 
