THE GINGER FAIkllLY. 



171 



been introduced to Kew. Puya chilensis is a native of the 

 west coast of tropical America and North Chili, where it 

 occupies large tracts forming impenetrable thickets. It has 

 long recurved leaves, armed with hooked spines, and con- 

 tains fibre in abundance. It forms a branched stem 3 — 4 

 feet high. 



Dychia argentea is a beautiful sub-hemispherical plant, 

 with gracefuUy recurved silvery leaves 2 feet long, having 

 stout hooked spines along their margins. 



THE GINGEE, AND BANANA ALLIANCE. 

 The Ginger Family. 



(ZlNGIBERACE^.) 



Herbaceous plants with a creeping rhizome, which is often 

 branched, or consists of bunches of tubers; stemless, or 

 producing reed-like stems. Flowers radical, or on leafy 

 stems. Leaves alternate, entire, elliptical, lanceolate or 

 sword-shaped, with parallel veins diverging from the mid- 

 rib to the margins. Stem 1 or more flowered, furnished 

 ■with sheathing bractese. Fruit generally a 3-celled capsule, 

 sometimes pulpy and berry-like. 



Ginger (^Zingiber ojjicinale). This is universally cultivated 

 throughout the tropics, and it is impossible to state its native 

 country, but probably it is India. Ginger of commerce is 

 the rhizome or underground stem, which is lobed or fingered 

 in a peculiar manner, and produces reed-like stems, clothed 

 with grass-like foliage. Many varieties are in cultivation in 

 tropical regions. It is imported to this country in its dried 

 and bleached state from both the East and West Indies, 

 Africa, and China, but Jamaica Ginger is considered the 

 best. 



Turmeric {Curcuma longa and C. rotunda). Stemless plants 

 having elliptical leaves rising from a fascicle of tuber-like roots 

 which differ in form, some being round, others long and 

 narrow, but now considered to be only different states of one 

 species. 



