THE SCITAMINEZ OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 119 
C. Zedoaria Roscoe, Scitamines. t. 109. Curcuma zerumbet Roxb. 
As. Res. XI. 833. C. Sumatrana Miq. Fl. Sumatra. p. 615. 
Rhizome large with oblong rounded tubers, orange colored 
inside. Leaves in pairs 14 foot long and six inches across lan- 
ceolate cuspidate glabrous bright green with a central purple 
brown bar. Scape outside the tuft of leaves, peduncle 14 foot 
long, + inch through covered at the base by a sheath six inches 
long, green with an obtuse apex, and cleft to the base. Spike 
six inches long or more, with about twenty bracts, the lower 
ones green more or less tipped with pink, the terminal ones 
lanceolate deep crimson thinner in texture; the lower ones two 
inches long and 14inch wide rather soft quite blunt and rounded. 
The flowers are four to each bract. Bracteoles thin transpa- 
rent white hardly an inch long lanceolate. Calyx thin transpa- 
rent with a ring of erect hairs at the base, + inch long, bifid 
slichtly hairy all over, apices rounded. Corolla tube an inch 
long funnel-shaped yellowish white, the lobes half an inch long 
pure white, thin, # inch across, the upper one mucronate. Lip 
obovate oblong over one inch long dilated towards the apex, 
which is bifid, pale yellowish with a thicker central bar ; the apex 
orange with a faint purple line along each side of the bar. Sta- 
minodes oblong larger and stiffer than the petals obtuse erect. 
Stamen filament for the greater part adnate to the staminodes, 
ovate white, the anther mobile oblong squared pubescent, the 
basal processes horn-like acute; pollen white. Ovary nearly + 
inch in length hairy. Style projecting beyond the stamen. 
Stigma transversely oblong. 
The Zedoary is known to the Malaysas Temu Lawas. [t 
is frequently cultivated and often persists in waste land after 
cultivation is abandoned and seems to establish itself thoroughly. 
It frequently grows among lalang and generally flowers there, 
but it is not easy to flower it in a pot or in really good soil. It 
is a very handsome plant when in flower, and its foliage is also 
ornamental. It is said to be wild in the Hastern Himalayas and 
is cultivated all over the Hast. 
Singapore, common. Penang, roalside near Balik Pulau. 
Kedah, Yan: Siam at Bangtaphan (Dr. Keith). Also Celebes at 
Minahassa (KKoorders 19671.5) 
