HEDYCHIUM ELATUM. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYN IA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER. 
naked, attached at the back to the apex of the filament ; filament long, flexible, 
grooved, embracing the style ; capsule three-celled 
Sprc. Cuar.—Spike Open, regular, flowers in whorls of three, 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther double, 
; seeds numerous, arilled. 
alternating on the spike into six rows; bractes 
tubular, 3-4-florous ; filament twice the length of the lip ; lip bilobate, lobes elliptic-ovate, flesh- 
colour in the centre, the rest a dull milky white; leaves smooth and dark green above, glaucous 
and villous below, mid-rib below red or purple. 
Syy.—Hedychium elatum. Bot. Reg. No. 526. 
Hedychium elatum. Loddiges’ Bot. Cabinet. No. 856. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root tuberous, very large, running horizontally near the surface of the earth, perennial; stem erect, from 
12 to 14 feet high, herbaceous ; leaves alternate, sessile, broad-lanceolate, from 18 to 24 inches in length, smooth 
on the upper surface, villous and glaucous below, mid-rib below red, the young leaves are a faint purple below, 
but lose it with age. Stipule or ocrea embracing the stem, obtuse, purple, very villous; spike terminal, nearly 
erect, from 18 to 20 inches in length, very strong, hirsute ; outer bractes inferior, cylindrical, ovate, ciliate; inner 
bractes pellucid, downy ; flowers growing in whorls of three, alternating on the spike, so as to appear in six rows 
when viewed from the apex downwards ; calyx superior, sheathing the tube of the corolla nearly its whole length, 
greenish yellow, villous; corolla with a double limb; outer limb in three long linear, slender, reflected, tortuose 
segments, yellow; inner limb in three segments, two lateral segments equal, elliptic-ovate, slightly crenate, flesh- 
coloured towards the base, a pale milky white above; lip deeply divided into two lobes, lobes trapeziform, margins 
slightly ciliated, rufescent towards the base, the rest a dull greyish white; filament twice the length of the lip, 
flexile, flesh-coloured, grooved, and receiving the style, attached at the apex by a flexible ligament to the back of 
the anther, which is bilobate, grooved, and receives the style, which extends a little beyond it, and terminates in a 
concave ciliated stigma; germen three-celled, with two short blunt processes supporting the style at the base. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The figures above referred to, in Bot. Cab. No. 856, and Bot. Reg. No. 526, having been drawn from smaller 
specimens, give a very inadequate idea of this most magnificent plant; which, as has been well observed by 
Mr. Brown, is perfectly distinct from the speciosum ; although we cannot agree in the observation, (Bot. Reg. p. 526.) 
that in speciosum the spike is much longer; we having in our possession a native spike of speciosum (a plant not yet 
introduced into this country,) sent us some years since by Dr. Wallich, which is only twelve inches in length, and 
bears about a dozen flowers, whilst the spike of the elatum, now figured, was eighteen inches in length, and bore 
double the number of flowers. The plant was nearly fourteen feet high. It was sent to the Liverpool Garden by 
Messrs. Loddiges. Whether this may be a different species from H. carneum, which, according to Dr. Wallich, 
(in MSS.) varies exceedingly according to elevation, soil, and culture, and from which he professes he cannot 
distinguish it, we may probably, at some ANIA YADA COGENT COC ERENT. 
= ? 
REFERENCES. 
. Inner bracte. 
. Outer bracte. 
. Corolla intire. 
Co wo 
4. Germen and calyx. 
5. Stigma, style, and processes at the base. 
