On the Cultivation of Rare Plants. 



A most beautiful genus, confounded by Professor 

 Swartz with Alpinia Racemosa of Linn^us, though he 

 observes that Plumier's figure does not correspond with 

 this plant. I purchased it of Messrs. Lee and Kennedy 

 in 1795, and it both flowered and ripened seeds under the 

 shade of taller plants, in the bark-bed at Chapel Allerton, 

 growing to the height of five or six feet. The fruit is very 

 different from that of Alpinia. 



Gethtra Occidentals. MSS. Alpinia occidentalis 

 in Hort. Kew. ed. 2. v. 1. p. 4. 



This plant has been longer in the country than is men- 

 tioned in Hortus Ke wen sis, for I saw it flowering in the 

 double-roofed stove at King's Weston, in August 1778. It is 

 one of the most valuable plants of this Natural Order, the 

 seeds being agreeably aromatic, like those of Cardamomum 

 officinale, from which genus this differs principally in the 

 nectarium. It grows wild in the moist woods of Jamaica. 



Cardamomum Officinale. MSS. Amomum cardamo- 

 mum. White in Linn. Trans, v. 10. p. 229. cum Ic. Elettaria 

 cardamomum. Maton in Linn. Trans, v. 10. p. 254. cujussyno 

 nyma completissima. 



As this important spice-plant is already in the botanic 

 garden at Liverpool, it is to be hoped we may see it at Kew ; 

 but for fear that plant should die, I especially mention it, to 

 stimulate the Directors of our East India Company to order 

 both ripe capsules, and living plants, in pots, to be sent 

 here, and properly attended to during the voyage, by some 

 one of those captains of their ships, to whom they give op- 

 portunities of amassing such immense fortunes. We have 

 amongst our Members, one gentleman who is a Director, 



