CURCUMA AMARISSIMA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINE. 
Gry. Cuar.—Anther double, embracing the style, bicalcarate at the base; filament petal-like, in three segments, 
middle segment bearing the anther. 
Srec. Cuar.—Spike lateral; stem clouded; leaves broad-ovate, dark green; exterior limb of corolla crimson ; 
lip ovate, yellow; coma white, tipt with pink; root and palmate tubers very large, yellow 
in the centre, and eruginous towards the margin. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Floral bulb composed of a series of large jointed tubers, with lateral fibres, palmate tubers long, linear, 
the thickness of a man’s thumb, zruginous and yellow within; pendulous tubers few and small, of a pearly 
hue within; stem rufescent; leaves green and smooth on both sides, with sheathing petioles; spike lateral, 
from 4—6 inches high, with brown, purplish sheaths; fertile bractes large, imbricate, dark green; coma small, 
white, tipt at the apex of the bractes with pale pink colour; interior bracte ovate, white; calyx in three 
sections, tipt with pink at the apex; outer limb of corolla in three segments, crimson; upper segment mucronate, 
hooded; filament, or upper lip of the interior limb in three sections, pale straw colour, the lateral sections 
erect, converging, the middle one bearing the bicalcarate grooved anther; lower lip obtusely trilobate, yellow, 
the middle lobe largest, crenate or undulate at the margin; style filiform, with two subulate processes at 
the base; stigma a ciliated cup; germen villous; capsule three-celled; seeds numerous. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This plant, which, as far as my inquiries have extended, has not hitherto been either figured or 
described, is readily known from every other species, by its dusky rufescent stem, its white and scanty 
coma, and its intensely bitter root, which has induced me to distinguish it by its present appellation.— 
It was sent by the Rev. Dr. Carey, of Serampore, to the Botanic Garden in Liverpool, where it flowered 
in the month of April 1824. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Section of one of the pendulous tubers. 
2. Calyx. 
3, Interior bracte. 
4, Lip. 
. Intire flower. 
. Upper lip of interior limb of corolla, antheriferous. 
5 
6. 
7. Ditto, reversed. 
g. Germen, with its subulate processes, style and stigma. 
9 
. Anther and style. 
