1896.] G. King & D. Prain— On Croftia. 297 



On Croftia, a new Indo-Chinese genus of Scitamineae. — 



By G. King and D. Prain. 



[Reed. 31st May, Read 3rd June.] 



With Plate IX. 



"While engaged in sorting into the Calcutta Herbarium the material 

 of the natural order Scitamineae received since 1892 (the date when the 

 account of the family published in vol. vi. of the Flora of British India 

 was completed) the writers met with a form that appears to differ 

 generically from any hitherto described. 



A member of the tribe Zingibereae, this plant by the form and ar- 

 rangement of its flowers recalls the genus Globba, by its habit and its 

 fruit the genus Oautleya. In reality, however, it is equally remote from 

 both ; its 3-locular ovary forbids more than a passing comparison with 

 Globba ; the absence of a lip makes its association with Oautleya 

 impossible. 



Its nearest natural ally appears to be the genus Bhynchanthus, along- 

 side of which it must be placed. This genus * is remarkable among 

 Euzingibereae in possessing small erect corolla-lobes, a lip that is 

 reduced to a mere tooth, and a most curious petaloid filament bearing 

 an anther with no appendage ; it is at the same time devoid — though 

 this is a less unusual character — of any trace of lateral staminodes. 

 Bhynchanthus has been compared by its author with the genus Burbid- 

 gea f which differs in having broad corolla lobes, a distinct lip, a 

 stamen with short filament and an anther with a long appendage ; 

 here again there is no trace of lateral staminodes. 



The present plant resembles Bhynchanthus in possessing small 

 erect corolla-lobes and an inappendiculate anther ; it agrees further in 

 having no lip — that organ not being represented even by a tooth. But 

 its filament is not petaloid and there are present two distinct petaloid 

 lateral staminodes resembling a good deal those of a Globba or of a 

 Mantisia ; the corolla tube, moreover, which ia Bhynchanthus is funnel- 

 shaped above the middle, is in the present plant very narrowly tubular 

 from base to limb, as in Globba ; the stylodes also are elongated and 



* Bhynchanthus Hook. fil. Bot. Mag. t. 6861 (1886;; Engler, Natiirlich. 

 Pflanzenfam. ii. part 6. p. 23 (1889) ; Baker in Hook. fil. Flor. Brit. Ind. vi. 257 

 (1892). One species ; i?. longiflorws Hook. f. loc. cit., obtained in Upper Burma by 

 Dr. J. Anderson, and by the Collectors of Hort. Low. 



f Borbidgea. Hook. fil. Bot. Mag. t. 6403 (1879); Engler, Natiirlich. Pflanzen- 

 fam. ii. part 6. p. 22 (1889). One species; B. nitida Hook. f. loc. cit, obtained by 

 Mr. F. W. Burbidge in North-West Borneo. 

 J. II. 38 



