463 



A NEW CURCUMA FROM THE DECCAN. 

 By D. Prain. 

 ( With a Plate.) 



(Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on 6th Dec, 1897.) 



Some time ago Mr. N. B. Ranade, * in charge of the Poona 

 Herbarium, during the absence, on leave, of Mr. Woodrow, sent to the 

 Royal Botanic Gardens, Calcutta, some rhizomes of Kaempferia scaposa, 

 a scitamineous plant peculiar to Western India. Mixed with these 

 rhizomes were some tubers evidently of a Curcuma. These latter were 

 potted at the same time as the Kaempferia^ and one of the resulting 

 plants has just flowered. 



The species proves different from any of those described in Sir J. D. 

 Hooker's " Flora of British India," Vol. VI, 209—216, where Mr. Baker 

 deals with the Indian Curcumas. A description of the plant, as nearly 

 as possible parallel to the descriptions of the others drawn up by Mr. 

 Baker, is herewith offered, in the hope that it may be of use to those 

 members of the Bombay Natural History Society who are in the habit 

 of consulting the " Flora of British India " in the field. 



§ II. Mesantha. Horan. Flower-spike autumnal, in the centre of 

 the tuft of leaves ; bracts not recurved at the tip. 



16b. Curcuma Ranadei Prain ; rootstock small, sessile tubers o • 

 petiole rather long; leaves large thin ovate-lanceolate, cuneate 

 at base, acuminate at tip ; flower-bracts green faintly tinged with pink 

 at their tips, those of the coma few mauve-purple; flowers bright yellow, 

 considerably longer than the bracts. 



Deccan : Poona, Ranade I The plants were raised from tubers sent 

 to Calcutta, where one flowered in the Royal Botanic Garden, Septem- 

 ber, 1897. 



Eootstoch bearing numerous small almond-like tubers at the ends of fibres, 

 the tubers compressed, pure white within. Leaves thin, blade 8 in. lorjg, 4 in. 

 wide, uniform green, stalk 8-15 in. long. Spike autumnal, central ; the pe- 

 duncle 4 in. long embraced by leaf -sheaths; the head narrowly oblong, 2 in. long, 

 1 io. across, with flower-bracts rather narrow 1*25 in. long, *6 in. wide, with an 

 acute slightly pink tip, elsewhere pale green ; those of the coma lanceolate, 

 35 in. wide, the lowest with purple edges only, the upper more or less uni- 

 formly mauve-purple. Floivers large, 1*75 in. long, projecting beyond the 



* Mr. N. B. Ranade died at Poona on 15th October, 1897. 



