THE SCITAMINEZ OF THE MALAY 
PENINSULA. 
The traveller in the forests of the Peninsula can hardly fail 
to notice the beauty of many of our wild gingers (Scitominee) 
and would be surprised to find how much this interesting group 
of plants has been neglected by botanists, for though many have 
received names, but few have been completely described, and 
the descriptions of Malayan species by Miquel. and Blume are 
often so incomplete that it is impossible to make out what plants 
they are intended for. Many descriptions have been made 
from badly dried specimens, and unless special care is taken 
these plants do not preserve well, for the flowers are thin and 
fugacious, and the spikes usually full of water, and unless the 
flowers are dried separately from the spikes they are apt to rot 
in the press. Very few kinds again have been cultivated in 
gardens either in the Hast or in Europe, but those that have, 
have often been well figured and described. In studying this 
group here, I have in nearly every case compiled the de- 
scription from specimens in the jungle itself, or from plants 
brought home and cultivated in the Botanic Gardens. 
The Order consists of five groups, which, beginning with 
the most specialised, are Zingiberacew, Marantacee, Cannacee, 
Lowiacee and Musacee. 
The typical monocotyledonous flower consists of three 
sepals (calyx) three petals (corolla) six stamens in two whorls 
and three pistils. In this order the sepals are usually united 
into a tube and the corolla also forms a tube, with the petals 
free at the top (corolla lobes.) The stamens in the Musacee 
(Bananas) and Lowzacee are five in number, one being entirely 
suppressed, or forming part of the lip. In the Arrow-roots, 
(Marantacee) only four are developed, one forms the lip, another 
is spathulate and hooded (the cucullate stamen) a third is flat 
and resembles a petal (petaloid) and the other is narrow and 
bears in its edge an anther cell. This curious arrangement is 
