ZINGIBER ZERUMBET. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER, 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther double ; filament extending beyond the anther, in a subulate grooved beak, embracing 
the style. 
Spec. Cuar.—Scape lateral; spike strobiliform ; 
with two lateral lobes, and notched at the apex; leaves lanceolate ; flowers pale straw-colour. 
Syy.—Katu-Inschi-Kua. Rheed. Mail. xi. p. 27. tab. 13. 
bractes broad-ovate, ciliated at the margin ; lip broad, crenate, 
Amomum zerumbet, scapo nudo, 
Willd. i. 6. 
spica oblonga obtusa, squamis subrotundis, foliis ovatis, margine glabris. 
Amomum spurium. Gmelin, i. p. 6. Dryander, in Linn. Trans. 2—218. 
Amomum zerumbet. Jacg. Hort. Vind. v. iii. p- 30. t. 54 
Zingiber spurium. Konig. in Retz. Obs. iii. 60. 
Zingiber zerumbet, bracteas ovate obtuse; outer segments of the corolla straight, centre of the lip 
cloven. Smith, Exot. Bot. v. ii. p- 105. tab. 112. 
Zingiber zerumbet. Smith, in Rees’ Cyclop. 
Zingiber zerumbet. Roemer § Schultes, i. 23. 
Zingiber zerumbet. Roxb. Flor. Ind. i. 47. 
Zingiber zerumbet. Sprengel, i. 12. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root tuberous, biennial, externally whitish, internally pale yellow, with an acrid slightly aromatic taste ; 
stems annual, 3—4 feet high, invested in the sheaths of the leaves; leaves bifarious, sessile, broad-lanceolate, 
intire, deep green above, paler beneath, with a ligula or sheath rising above the leaf, and embracing the stem ; 
scape rising from the root, from one to two feet high, closely invested in a series of imbricated sheaths, 
villous at the edges; spikes ovate, imbricate, dark green, producing their flowers in succession ;_ bractes 
broad, sub-orbicular, coriaceous; calyx superior, membranaceous, trifid; corolla with a double limb, exterior 
limb deeply divided into three segments, the larger one erect, concave, the two lower ones long, linear, 
equal, extending below and supporting the lip; interior limb or lip of one petal, deeply divided into three 
lobes, the central lobe bifid at the apex; the whole of the lip finely crenate, and, as well as the outer 
limb, of a pale delicate straw-colour; filament erect, supporting the ui and extending beyond it in a 
grooved beak ; anther broad, embracing the style; style slender, extending beyond the filament, and supported 
at the base by two blunt processes ; stigma a minute ciliated cup. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This plant has long been an inhabitant of this country, having been brought from the East Indies, 
and cultivated in the Royal Garden at Hampton Court, in 1690. Hort. Kew, i. p.6. It is still found wild in 
a ¥ Calcutta, ripening its seeds in November and December. Flor. Ind. i. 47. 
the woods pout has not been found to have any medical qualities, it has been supposed, as its name 
Although this ae nS true Zerumbet; but Mr. Colebrooke has shown, that in this respect Van Rheede 
implies, s ae who assisted him, and that Rumphius mistook it for the Galangal. “ It bears 
was misled by the 
Sy Sea Dr. Roxb. Monandrous Plants, in Asiat. Res. xi. 346, 7. 
Cassumunar.” Vide Note on 
more resemblance to the 
