RENEALMIA EXALTATA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
a eee 
SECT, Il. SCITAMINER,. 
Gry. Cuar.—Filament none; anther double, linear, naked, attached by a short ligament to the base of the 
middle segment of the exterior limb of the corolla; style tubular; stigma bluntly triangular, 
peltate, perforate. 
SPEc. Cuar.—Spike radical, lateral spikelets compound; bractes alternate, many-flowered ; perianth inferior, bifid ; 
capsules large, ovate, umbilicate, dark purple, fibrous, mucilaginous, three-celled, seeds numerous, 
angular, aromatic. 
Syy.—Paco Seroca. Plumier Hist. 5. 25, 26, 
Renealmia Exaltata. Ess. char. corolla three-cleft ; nectary oblong; calyx of one leaf; anther sessile, 
and opposite to the nectary ; berry fleshy. Lin. Sup. p. 7. Wild. i. 6. 
Alpinia Renealmia. Smith in Rees’ Cyclop. Suppl. No. xiv. 2. Alpinia Exaltata, racemo subradiate erecto ; 
labio concavo, trilobo; foliis lanceolatis, undulatis. Ulterius inquerenda an vere hujus generis 
sit. Roemer & Schultes, i. 21. 
Alpinia exaltata, racemo subradicali adscendente. Meyer, Flora Esequibonensis, p. 4. 
Alpinia tubulata. Bot. Reg. fig. 777. Bot. Mag. 2494. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root tuberous; stem erect, rising to 8 or ten feet in height; leaves distant, alternate, bifarious, sessile, 
linear-lanceolate, smooth; scape radical, lateral, rising from near the base of the stem, villous, with many 
membranous, imbricated, coloured bractes; spike long, erect, many-flowered; floral bractes about the length 
of the flowers, lanceolate, persistent, membranous, coloured; pedicels short, villous, compound, 2—4: flowered ; 
perianth inferior, of one leaf, ovate, bifid and ciliate at the apex, involute, coloured, covering the germen 
and about two-thirds of the calyx; calyx superior, tubular, three-toothed, coloured, permanent; corolla tubular, 
expanding into a double limb; outer limb in three nearly equal, ovate segments, middle segment antheriferous, 
inner limb or lip rather larger, opposite to the anther, obscurely three-lobed, and crenate at the apex 5 
filament none; anther double, linear, naked, attached at the back by a short ligament inserted in the faux 
of the corolla, at the base of the middle or upper section of the outer limb; style thread-shaped, tubular, 
supported at the base by two subulate processes, received between the lobes of the anther, and extending 
a little beyond them; stigma obtusely trigonous, peltate in front, with two concurrent orifices at the back, 
communicating with the tube of the style; every part of the flower downy, and covered with small glandular 
spots; germen ovate, villous; fruit a pulpy berry, ovate, or nearly globular, dark purple, approaching to black, 
fibrous, mucilaginous, three-valved, three-celled, seeds numerous, enclosed in a pulpy substance, angular, 
aromatic. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
For the complete knowledge recently obtained of this plant, we are indebted to our friend and townsman 
Charles S. Parker, Esq. who discovered it growing in its uncultivated state in Demerara, and obligingly 
furnished us with specimens both in flower and fruit; from the latter of which we obtained seeds, which 
in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, in the month of July, 1825, and have produced plants, 
were sown 
some of which are now from 5 to 6 feet high; but none of them having as yet flowered, we are 
Nero nasenrecoursegfonhour description to the specimens brought by Mr. Parker, as well dried, as 
compelled to hé 
di writs: from which we are enabled to give as satisfactory a description, as we apprehend could 
preserved in_ spirits ; 
have been obtained from the inspection of the Jivingi:flower, 
