In the meantime, a root of a girger from Siam shown - the 
Health Exhibition at South Kensington in 1884 proved to be 
alive when received at the Kew Museum. As it obviously differed 
from it, and ultimately in flowering it in 1886, when he communicated 
хын ‘following account to the Gardeners’ Chronicle (July 31, 1886, 
р. 150). 
* Siam Ginger—Amongst the collection of fruits, &c. shown by the 
Siam ominis at the International Health Exhibition, held at South 
Kensington in 1884, were some roots labelled ‘Ginger.’ These were 
obtained for the Kew Museum, but one of them being alive was — 
to grow, and it is now bearing stems 5 feet high, and is in 
comparing it with the drawings and specimens in the ный Мг. 
Baker has identified it with a specimen labelled * Alpinia sp., Bangkok,’ 
which was collected by Sir R. Schomburgh in 1864, and which is very 
near to A. Allughas, also a native of Siam, where, according to Schom- 
burgh, it is cultivated for its Cardamomum-like =a and is known as 
as Luk-Reu or Bastard Cardamom. Under the e of Galangal, A. 
and 
lane" cultivated bes the Siamese as a substitute for Ginger. 
rhizome is very thick, slightly flattened, and not so freely branched as 
in common Ginger; it has the pungent aromatic properties of Ginger, 
so far at least as could be told by tasting it. ‘There is some reason for 
believing that the Chinese Ginger of commerce is not obtained from 
at present they have the same habit, broad leaf and rhizome, of the 
Siam plant. In Zingiber officinale the inflorescence is borne on a sepa- 
rate short stem without leaves, X barren stems being about 3 feet high, 
and clothed with narrow Nel «8. foliage. ; in Alpinia the flowers 
are borne in panicles on the ends o tout leaf-stems, the well known 
tans and the newer A. ж, А. beautiful garden plants, being 
familiar « Or mie ^ 
n 1887 Sir Joseph Hooker figured the plant in the Botanical Maga- 
Pm (tab. 6944) as a new species, Alpinia zingiberina. The rhizome 
he describes as “ very aromatic ?` they “smell and taste а good deal 
* like the officinal plant; they are, however, very much larger, at 
* least three times as thick, are much more shari and irregularly 
** branched, and the branches are thickened in ihe m 
Mr. Baker in working up the Scitaminee for tke "Flora of British 
India has arrived at the conclusion that Alpinia zingiberina is not 
essentially distinct from Alpinia Galanga, Willd., the Greater Galangal, 
a plant d uà native of Java and Sumatra now much cultivated in 
India for its rhizome. 
In December 1888 we received the first authentic flowering speci- 
men of the ** Chinese Ginger " from the Botanical Department, Jamaica. 
It was grown at the Hope Gardens, by the Superintendent, Mr. Harris. 
This proved, as suspected by Mr. Watson, to be an Alpinia, and also 
identical with the Siam plant. It is in fact а more than the weil 
known Alpinia Galanga. 
Specimens received in the present year from the indefatigable corres- 
pondent of Kew in Dominica, Dr. Alford Nicholls, F.L.S., confirm this 
result, and Mr. Ford, the Superintendent of the Botanical and Affores- 
