■A 



— 2 — 



were useless for javanese species and that even the Java "Turmeric" or 

 "kunyit", though already described in an excellent way by Rumph and Koeniq, 

 had to be renamed and described again, because none of the recent descrip- 

 tions quoting those two authors agreed with the plant in question. 



It appeared to me that from a cursory determination of the existant 

 material no good result was to be expected, and Mr, Heyne with his 

 wellknown thoroughgoingness proposed to me to lay out a culture garden, 

 where all available Zingiberaceae of economical interest were to be grown 

 and in this way to procure me living material which might be studied at leisure. 



This plan was executed and proved efficient. With a few exceptions 

 the species of Curcuma have flowered, and far the largest part could be 

 examined in a living state. As might be expected the majority of the 

 cultivated forms proved to be new to science and many of them represented 

 quite new and well distinct species. 



The abundance of materials induced me to study this genus in a more 

 explicit way than is done commonly in a systematic report, 



A very appreciated complement for my study with respect to the spontaneous 

 growing species 1 received by the kind assistance of Mr. Beekman, Director 

 of the Exp. Stat, of Forestry, under whose supervision specimens of all Curcuma 

 species available in a flowering state were collected in the principal teak 

 forests of Java by Mr. Ralshoven, Assistant conservator of forests, who 

 acquitted himself in a very satisfactory way of his task. Some new species 

 and interesting information about the distribution 1 thank to his investigations. 



For the knowledge of some wild growing species of the tableland of 

 Mt Yang 1 am indebted to Mr. Jeswiet, subdirector of the Oost-Java Agricultural 

 ♦Station, who provided me with splendid living and well preserved materials. 



At last I have to thank Mr. Hj. Jensen, Director of the Klaten Agri- 

 cultural Station for flowering material of some species, sold in the native 

 market of Djogja, wanting in our gardens and cultivated by himself. 



Among the new species described below there are two, viz. C. Heyneana 

 and C. Mangga, bearing the authornames Valeton and van Zijp. This is 

 due to the fact that when applying for information to Mr. v. Zijp, pharmacist 

 in Malang, at the same time a collaborator in the scientia amabilis, a pupil 

 of Prof. Dr. Went in Utrecht, about a new Curcuma described by him 

 (1815, 340), which information was given willingly, I was informed that 

 Mr. v. Zijp was since a long time occupied in growing and studying the 

 Curcuma species sold on the bazars. He told me that at that very moment 

 he was about finishing a study of the two species above named known by 

 the native names "giring" and "temu mangga", to be published in the 

 „Kruidkundig archief". 



I proposed to Mr. v. Zijp to compare our studies of those two species 

 and to make up a description of them and baptise them in common. 



