H0RNSTEDT1A REIZ. 



by 



Th. Valeton. 



(With plate 9 — 13). 



HORNSTEDTIA Retz. 

 Retz Obs. VI (1791) 18. - Sienochzsma Griff. 1c. t. 359; Not. 3 

 (1851) 431. - Donacodes et Elettaria p.p. Bl (1827; 53 et 54.— Donacodes 

 T. et B. (1866) 57. -Amomum p.p. Benth. et HOOK. (183)); K. SCHUM. ( S 8 j7) 

 350; Val. in MERR. 1936".— Amomum Koeniq in Retz. III, (1779), 68.— 

 Amomum Baker, in Fl. Br. lud VI (1894) 233 p.p. -Homstedtia VALETON 

 in Bulletin del' inst. Bot. Buiteuzorg No. 20, (1904)45, 62; Nova Guinea 

 VIII (1912); ENGL. Jahrb. (1913). 



The genus as proposed by Retz (I. c.) was based on two species of 

 a rather similar habitus and flower structure, differing however by the con- 

 struction of the anther: H. scyphifera and H. leonurus. 



The generic characters used by him were principally the strobiliform 

 spike, with a terminal aperture, the filiform coroll-tube, and what he calls 

 the „tubulose labellum" (=auricles reflexed on the back of the anther)- 

 Griffith (I.e.) who described the same species afterwards as Stenochasnia, 

 does not give any generic characters. BENTH AM and HOOKER refer Hom- 

 stedtia to Euaowmuni, a subgenus of Amomum WiLLD. 



BAKER I.e. considered it as a subgenus and Ridley reestablished the 

 original genus but he ranges into it all those species of the Amomum group, 

 which do not belong to the Eu-amomum type and are placed by BAKER 

 into the subgroups Achasma and Oeanthus (incl. Niocolaia HOR Phaeo- 

 meria LINDL. ) and accepts two subgenera: Eu-hornstedtia and Phaeomeria. 



Schumann I.e. 1 904 accepts the same groups but he bestows on 

 both of them the rank of a genus. 



The writer has tried to demonstrate in his first paper on Zingiberaceac 

 of Java, Bull. 1904 I. c , and afterwards in Nova Guinea (1908) and ENGL. 

 Jahrb. (1913) that by the construction of the flower and inflorescence Eu- 

 hornstedtia and Nicolaia represent two well definable groups but only if 

 the species belonging to the Achasma-gvoup be referred to Nicolaia and se- 

 parated form Homstedtia. In the following 1 have tried to demonstrate in 

 which way I opine the Homstedtia group ought to be defined. 



Diagnose. 



Calyx tubuloso-spathaceus, superne dilatatus, apice minute tridentatus vel 

 bilobus et bimucronatus. Corollae tubus elongatus, superne paiillum dilatatus, 



