HEDYCHIUM SPICATUM. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINEE. 
Guy. Cuar.—Anther double, naked, attached at the back to the apex of the filament; filament grooved, embracing 
the style. 
Spc. Cuar.—Spike terminal, simple, loosely imbricated; outer bractes broad-ovate, hairy at the apex; filament 
shorter than the lip; lip deeply bifid; exterior segments of corolla erect; leaves alternate, linear- 
lanceolate. 
Syy.—Hedychium spicatum. Smith, in Rees’ Cyclop. 
Hedychium spicatum. Bot. Mag. 2300. 
Hedychium spicatum. Hooker, Exot. Fl. 1. 46. 
Hedychium spicatum. Loddiges’ Bot. Cab. 7. 653. 
Hedychium spicatum. Spica elongata, oblonga, multiflora, squamis laxe imbricatis, obtusissimis, trifloris, 
limbi interioris laciniis lanceolatis, labello obovato, bilobo, subsessili, stamen concolor, longitudine 
subzequante. Wallich, in MS. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Roots tuberous, running horizontally near the surface, with long succulent fibres; stem simple, herbaceous, 
three feet in height, erect, smooth, tinged with pink towards the base; leaves alternate, linear-lanceolate, 12-15 
inches long, inzequilateral, smooth above, and downy underneath ; petioles short, decurrent, with a hairy stipule or 
ocrea; spike terminal, simple, loosely imbricate, 6—8 inches long ; fascicles 2-3 flowered ; rachis smooth ; outer bractes 
broad-ovate, hairy at the upper margin; inner bracte membranous, hairy at the apex, one to each flower; calyx 
tubular, sheathing the corolla half its length, trifid at the apex; tube of corolla 3—4 inches long; outer limb of three 
linear-lanceolate equal segments, erect, two of them immediately behind, and supporting the lip; inner limb of the 
corolla of three segments, two of them long, linear, equal, diverging at nearly right angles; lip broad, deeply divided 
into two lobes, erect; lobes ovate, obtuse, uniting in a short claw; filament strong, erect, shorter than the lip, 
grooved, embracing the style; anther bilobate, yellow ; style filiform, tubular, supported at the base by two blunt 
yellow processes ; stigma cup-shaped, compressed, beautifully ciliated with fine hairs ; capsule three-celled. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
“« Native of the borders of fields among the hills of Upper Napal, where it is called Wohutty-swa, and admired 
for its beauty and fragrance ; the latter being, according to Dr. Buchanan, (now Hamilton,) of a very powerful kind.” 
Smith, in Rees. Although this, according to the information of Dr. Wallich, (in MS.) “is the commonest of all the 
species,” it does not seem to have been long introduced into the gardens of India, not being enumerated among the 
rest of the genus in the Flora Indica of Dr. Roxburgh. It is also necessary to state, in order to prevent mistakes, 
that the copper-plate engraving of a plant published by Dr. Wallich, under an name of Hedychium spicatum, has 
since been found by him to represent another species which he has denominated ZH. trilobum, the lip of which is 
trifid ; but which I am not aware has hitherto been introduced into this country. 
The H. spicatum, we believe, flowered for the first time in this kingdom, at Lord Milton’s Conservatory, at 
Wentworth House, and the spike was sent by Mr. Cooper, his Lordship’s Botanic Gardener, to Liverpool, for the 
use of this work. The plant at present in the Liverpool Garden, was sent by Dr. Wallich, from Calcutta. 
We find from the Bot. Reg. No. 2300, that the H. spicatum “has been planted in the open border’ in the 
front of the stove and greenhouse at Mr. Kent’s, at Clapton, where they stood the winter, and made sone plants 
> but the specimen there figured, would not induce us to repeat the experiment. 
REFERENCES. 
than what were housed ;’ 
1. Intire flower. 
2, Exterior or general bracte. 
3. Inner or proper bracte. 
4. Calyx detached. 
5. Germen, with its processes, style and stigma. 
