ZINGIBER RUBENS. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINE®. 
Gry. Cuar.—Anther double; filament extending beyond the anther, in an awl-shaped beak, embracing the style. 
Spec. Cuar.—Spike lateral, radical, half immersed in the earth, imbricate; bractes linear-lanceolate-acute, bright 
red, slightly villous; lip oblong-ovate, intire, revolute, spotted with red. 
Zingiber Rubens, Flor. Ind. sp. 6, vol. i. p. 51. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Roots tuberous; stems herbaceous, declining, 6-8 feet high; leaves alternate, bifarious, sessile, sheathing, 
lanceolate, 12-14 inches long, smooth on the upper and villous on the under side, terminating in a long 
membranaceous stipule, somewhat bifid, and hairy at the apex; spikes radical, rising from the base of the stem, 
where they join the root, oblong-ovate, imbricated ; outer bracte one-flowered, lanceolate-acute, bright red, slightly 
villous; inner bracte nearly the length of the tube of the corolla, pellucid, slightly villous, irregularly 
tridentate ; calyx cylindrical, membranaceous, pellucid, sheathing the tube of the corolla half its length, apex 
three-toothed, very slightly villous; corolla with a long recurved cylindrical villous tube; exterior limb of the 
corolla in three lanceolate-acute, concave, bright-red segments, the two lateral ones immediately under, and 
supporting the lip, and projecting a little beyond it, the other segment erect, all slightly hairy; interior limb or 
lip of one segment oblong-ovate, mucronate, revolute, beautifully marked with spots of red on a yellowish ground ; 
filament short; anther two-lobed, terminating with the long awl-shaped process or horn, of a bright red colour, 
extending along the upper side of the lip; style tubular, slender; stigma funnel-shaped, ciliated, with the mouth 
downwards; germen villous, three-celled ; germinal processes blunt. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
A native of the interior of Bengal, sent by Dr. Buchanan from the neighbourhood of Rungpore, to the 
Botanic Garden at Calcutta. A plant received from Messrs. Loddiges’ at Hackney, flowered in the Botanic Garden 
at Liverpool, in October 1822. 
REFERENCES. 
. Outer bracte. 
. Inner ditto. 
. Calyx. 
. Germen, anther, and projecting beak of the filament. 
. Anther, and beak in front. 
Germen and processes, style and stigma. 
. The lip resting on the two lateral segments of the outer limb of corolla. 
ort nan fF wo po 
. The lip expanded. 
