HEDYCHIUM LONGIFOLIUM. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER. 
naked, attached at the back b 
filament long, flexible, 
Src. Cuar.—Spike open, regular, 
Gen. Cuar.—Anther double, y a flexible ligament to the apex of the filament; 
grooved, embracing the style. 
flowers in whorls of threes, alternating on the spike into six rows; bractes 
biflorous ; lip bilobate, papilionaceous ; filament twice the length of the lip; leaves long, linear, 
equilateral, glaucous; midrib hairy below. 
Syy.—Long-leaved, red garland-flower. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Roots perennial, tuberous; stem 6-8 feet high, glaucous, smooth, erect ; leaves opposite, alternate, linear- 
lanceolate, two feet long, terminating in a filiform point, smooth on both sides, except the midrib on the 
under side, which is hairy, and striated with pellucid spots ; sheathing of the leaves terminating in an ocrea, 
or ligulated stipule embracing the stem, about an inch in length, white ; spike slightly declined, 12 inches or 
upwards in length; rachis obtusely triangular, with fine pellucid spots ; flowers surrounding the spike in threes, 
alternating and forming six rows ; bractes biflorous ; outer bracte green, smooth, slightly hairy at the point; inner 
bracte cuneate, slightly ciliated ; calyx tubular, half the length of corolla, trifid, hairy ; corolla with a double border ; 
exterior limb in three equal segments, long, linear, narrow, reflexed; interior limb in three segments, the two 
lateral ones broad, elliptic-ovate, the third or lip on a contracted channelled claw, expanding into two broad, ovate, 
folding lobes ; filament erect, tapering, twice the length of the lip, grooved, embracing the style; anther double, 
terminal, attached at about one-third on the back, by a flexible ligament to the point of the filament ; style very 
slender, embraced by the filament, and extending a little beyond the anther; stigma a compressed cup, finely 
ciliated 5; germen hairy; capsule three-celled; seeds arilled. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This is one of the fine species of Hedychium flowering in a regular open spike, with red, or orange- 
coloured flowers ; of which several others are known, from all of which the present species. is distinguished by its 
long, linear-lanceolate leaves, and the broad, elliptic, lateral segments of the inner limb of the corolla. 
In other respects H. longifolium approaches nearest to H. carneum, of which an elegant figure is given in 
Loddiges’ Bot. Cab. fig. 693; but is distinguished, not only by its leaves,. but by the stipule or ocrea at the base of 
the leaf, which in longifolium is long and white, in carnewm shorter and red; by the colour of the flower, which 
in carneum isa pale flesh colour ; and by the scent, which in carneum is very fragrant, but in longifolium is 
scarcely perceptible. 
From H. coccinewm, figured under the name of H. angustifolium, in Coromandel Pl. fig. 254. Bot. Mag. 2078; 
from H. aurantiacum, figured as angustifolium, Bot. Reg. fig. 157; as well as from the true Hedychium 
angustifolium, this species may be known, as well by the form, as by the greater length of the leaves, which in 
all those species are lanceolate-acute ; by its glaucous colour, and hairy midrib below ; by the broad lateral segments 
of the interior limb of the corolla; and by its being nearly without scent. 
the Botanic Garden in Liverpool, by Dr. Wallich, in 1819, by the name under which 
This species was sent to 
it was then known in India, of Medychium coccineum; but the true coccineum having already been described by 
. : \ 
i i i Ve specific name became necessary. In a fine native specimen sent 
Sir J. E. Smith, in Rees’s New Encyclop. another sp p 
me by Dr. Wallich, from Calcutta, the spike of the flower is one foot, and the leaf two feet in length, 
REFERENCES. | 
. Corolla. 
. Germen, style, and stigma. 
Calyx. 
Outer bracte. 
oP EPs 
. Inner bracte. 
