ALPINIA NUTANS. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINES. 
Gen. ‘Cuar.—Anther double, embracing the style; filament simple, erect, not extending beyond the anther ; 
inner border of the corolla unilabiate; capsule three-celled ; seeds arilled. 
Srec. Cuan.—F lowers terminal; spike pendulous; lip broad-ovate, elongated towards the apex, crenate, and slightly 
bifid, furnished at the base with a pair of acute, subulate incurved spurs, or hornlets; leaves 
lanceolate, smooth, margins ciliate. 
Syy.—Globba nutans. Lin. Mant. ii. 170. Willd. i. 153. 
Globba nutans. Redouté, Liliac. i. 60. 
Globba sylvestris. Rumph. Amb. vi. 62. 
Zerumbet speciosum. Jacg. Fragm. tab. 68. 
Zerumbet speciosum. Wendland, Ser. Han. tab. 19. 
Costus Zerumbet. Persoon, Synop. 1. p. 3. 
Catimbium. Jussieu, Gen. Pl. Ed. Uster. 1791. 
Renealmia nutans. Andr. Rep. tab. 360. 
Alpinia nutans. Smith, Exot. Bot. tab. 106. 
Alpinia nutans. (Poora-nag-champa of the Hindoos.) Rowh. Asiat. Res. xi. 354. Flor. Ind. i. 64. 
Alpinia nutans. Roemer § Schultes, Syst. Veg. 1. 
Alpinia nutans. Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 1. 14. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Roots perennial, woody; stem erect, 8-10 feet high, covered with .a short .sericeous down; leaves linear- 
lanceolate, alternate, on short petioles, ciliated at the margin with tawny coloured hairs, length from 12 to 18, 
breadth from 4 to 5 inches; spike terminal, pendulous, inclosed in two large, coriaceous, deciduous bractes, the 
outer one acute, villous towards the apex, and sometimes terminating in a small leaf, the inner one ovate, and 
ciliated towards the apex ; rachis and peduncles downy ; floral bractes inferior, biflorous, bifid, coloured at the apex ; 
calyx superior, permanent, campanulate, slightly divided, and of a beautiful pink colour at the apex ; outer limb of 
the ¢orolla of three ovate segments, of a fine, transparent, porcelain-like white, tinged towards the extremity 
with rose colour, the central or upper segment larger and more acute than the two lateral ones; inner limb or 
lip large, inflated, broad-ovate, elongated towards the apex, slightly bifid and crenate, bright orange colour, with 
streaks of deep crimson diverging from the centre towards the margin, furnished at the base with two acute, 
incurved spurs or hornlets; filament erect, strong, grooved, supporting the large bilobate anther; style 
filiform, tubular, supported at the base by two blunt, tooth-like, germinal processes; stigma funnel-shaped, 
margin ciliate; germen downy ; capsule globular, striated, three-celled, three-valved; seeds globose, numerous, 
white, arilled. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The history of this noble plant, which stands unequalled in elegance and beauty by any species of the 
rival genera of Hedychium or Curcuma, may serve to show, more perhaps than any other instance, the 
tainty which prevailed in the definition of plants of the order of Scitaminew, before the improved system for 
uncertain 
th t of that order was introduced. Of this no other proof is necessary than the list of synonims 
e arrangemen 
