ALPINIA CALCARATA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYN IA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER. 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther double, embracing the style; filament simple, erect, not extended beyond the anther ; inner 
border of the corolla unilabiate ; capsule three-celled; seeds arilled. 
Spec. Cuar.—F lowers terminal, spike slightly declined, downy ; lip large, ovate, crenate, slightly bifid ; spurred at 
the base ; leaves narrow-lanceolate, inzequilateral. 
Syy.—Alpinia calcarata. Roxb. Flor. Ind. 1. 67. 
Globba erecta. Redoute. Pl. lil. tab. 174. 
Alpinia calcarata. Edwards, Bot. Reg. fig. 141. 
Spurred narrow-leaved Alpinia. Smith in Encycl. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root perennial, horizontal, somewhat woolly, crooked, stoloniferous, with many fleshy fibres, fragrant; stems 
numerous, erect, smooth, from three to five feet high ; leaves bifarious, alternate, short-petioled, intire, linear- 
lanceolate-acute, ineequilateral, marcescent at the apex, about a foot long, and from one to two inches broad; 
sheaths clasping the stem, smooth, with an acute stipulary process above the insertion of the leaf; spike terminal, 
slightly declined at the base, from four to five inches long, downy ; flowers numerous, in pairs, expanding 
successively ; bractes elliptical, white, one-flowered ; calyx superior, three-toothed, white, smooth; corolla tubular, 
with double border ; exterior limb in three deep, equal, linear, obtuse segments, pure white ; interior, or lip, large, 
expanding, ovate, obtusely crenate, bifid at the apex, deep yellow, with red spots, and richly streaked with dark 
purple veins ; lateral lobes wanting, but the lip is furnished with two awl-shaped, incurved appendages, or spurs, 
embracing the base of the filament; filament simple, club-shaped, covering the back of the anther, but not 
extending beyond it; anther double, attached to the filament its whole length, opposite to the lip; style tubular, 
filiform, embraced by the anther, and extending a little beyond it, supported at the base by the glandular processes, 
supposed by some to be imperfect stamina, and by Keenig, nectaries; stigma funnel-shaped, ciliate, compressed ; 
germen globose, downy, three-celled, many-seeded ; seeds arilled. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The present species has been rendered doubtful by the publication of other species under the same specific 
name; (Andrews, Bot. Reg. jig. 412. Renealmia calcarata,) but the accurate descriptions of Sir J. E. Smith and 
Dr. Roxburgh, perfectly corresponding with the plant, as it has flowered for several years in the Botanic Garden 
at Liverpocl, enable us to ascertain it without difficulty. Its flowers, although not so large, approach in beauty and 
habit those of Alpinia nutans, and, like those, are extremely fragrant. 
On a spike of flowers at the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, (August 1820,) was found a diandrous flower of 
this species, with two filaments, each bearing a double anther, and only one style rising equally between them. 
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