AMOMUM MELEGUETA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER. 
Gen. Cuar.—Anther double, 
attached to the front of a strong erect filament; filament extending beyond 
the anther, terminating in three lobes; lip unilabiate ; seeds many, arilled. 
Srec. Coarn.— : 
R.— Leaves narrow-lanceolate, sub-sessile, alternate, strongly nerved; lip large, ovate, crenate, white, 
terminating with crimson, pale yellow at the base; germinal processes near an inch long; 
capsule six inches long, coriaceous, yellow. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Stem erect, six feet in height; leaves bifarious, sub-sessile, narrow-lanceolate ; scape radical, covered at the 
base with about 7 imbricated, ovate, concave, pointed, and somewhat cuspidate bractes; calyx cylindrical, of one 
leaf, green, spotted with red; flowers cylindrical, expanding in a double border; outer border in three sections, 
the middle section largest, ovate, the two others linear and opposite; inner lip very large, broad-ovate, crenate, 
pale yellow at the base, and crimson at the margin ; filament strong, erect, clavate, terminating in three lobes, 
middle lobe erect and bifid, the other two pointed and recurved; a pair of hornlets on the filament, near 
the base of the lip; anther in two lobes, seated in front of the filament, a little below the apex, bright 
yellow; style erect, tubular, expanding into a ciliated stigma or cup, supported at the base by two linear 
processes, about an inch in length, and one-eighth of an inch in breadth, by much the largest specimen 
of this part observable in any Scitaminean Plant; fruit a cylindrical coriaceous capsule, six inches in 
length, yellow spotted with orange, supported at the base by the large ovate concave cuspidate bractes, 
and containing a columella or receptacle about four inches long, covered with seeds beautifully arranged, 
arilled, and imbedded in a tomentose substance; seeds angular, bright brown, with a highly aromatic and 
grateful flavour. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Although we cannot but regret that we have not had it in our power to exhibit more than one specimen 
of the genus Amomum, we have had the good fortune to ascertain, and for the first time to figure, the plant 
which produces the article formerly so extensively known in commerce by the name of Melegucta Pepper. 
On diligently comparing our plant with the various Eastern species of Amomum, so admirably delineated in 
the Plants of the Coast of Coromandel, with the African ones discovered by Afzelius, and particularly with 
the full and excellent description of the various species of Amomum. by Sir J. E. Smith, in Rees’s New 
Cyclopedia, the most complete that has hitherto appeared, we are strongly of opinion that the present plant 
differs from all that have hitherto been described, and that from the great size and beauty of its flowers, 
ation of its fruit, and above all, the extraordinary magnitude of its germinal processes, unparalleled, 
the conform 
as far as we have observed, in any other Scitaminean Plant, it is to be considered as a distinct species; 
to which, from the place on the coast of Africa, whence it is supposed to have been originally brought, 
and as producing the article known under the name of Melegueta Pepper, we have given the specific appellation 
of Melegueta. 
Afzelius, we are informed, 
Paradisi to be the true Melegueta Pepper; but after comparing our very perfect specimens of both flowers 
and fruit, with the figures and 
considered himself as having made a great discovery in determining the Grana 
descriptions of preceding authors, and particularly with those of Gertner and 
