Kaempferia pulchra Riol. 1899, 107; 1907, 13; K. Schum, 1904, 79 ; 

 Gagn. 1908. 



Though this ornamental herb is not a native of the Archipel as far 

 as known, the abundance of living material in the Bot. G. induced me to 

 make some new notes about it. 



This plant is curious by the regular alternation of a two leaved and a 

 one leaved generation. The first appears as well from seedlings as from 

 bulbs at the end of the dry season. It flowers abundantly during several 

 weeks and than a third leaf appears from a sidebud (a fourth and a fifth 

 sometimes follow). Their basal parts form small corms which remain a long 

 time in connexion with the mother corm, they bud at all sides and form 

 complexes of two or more tubercles each of the size of a small or a large 

 pea. The new plant flowers almost immediately and this process of bud- 

 ding and flowering continues until the end of the rainy monsun, and then 

 the supraterraneous parts decay. Meantime the oldest plants have fruited 

 and the seeds which in my cultures had no means of dispersing germinated 

 on the old decaying stock which is soon covered with the green one leaved 

 seedlings. The leaves resemble very much those of K. Roscoeana, the 

 lamina is sessile and the ligula forms distinct auricles. 



The inflorescence is a small head, oblong-acute, 25 — 30 mm. long, 

 6 mm. wide, borne by a terete fleshy white peduncle now 30 mm. long 

 3 mm. wide, rising from the top of the small bulb (5—10 mm. in diam) 

 and enclosed by the terete rather long (40—50 mm.), rigid imbricating 

 alternating leafsheaths, from which only the flowers are exserted. It con- 

 sists of 10—20 ovate lanceolate acute whitish green bracts inserted spirally 

 on the flat, or at last somewhat convex, torus. They are much wider than 

 the diameter of the head and with their thin inflexed margins are closely imbri- 

 cate; all are fertile and each flower is accompanied by a much shorter 

 (+ 10 mm.) very thin bracteole which is bifid unto very near the base, 

 with linear-filiform lobes. Just as in A. rotunda the bracteoles are evidently 

 composed of two individuals. 



On the whole the essential difference between the infl. of this species 

 and K. rotunda is the wanting here of the two large sterile scales, forming 

 the outer involucre. 



The flower has been described several times. A few details may be 

 added, in our specimens the exterior persisting bracts are pale green 

 (brown Ridley) the flower tube is long, at least 40 mm (25 Ridl. and Schum.) 

 The anther is sessile, the crest (linear RiDL., obovate Gagn.) is spathulate 

 with a very long linear claw, the obovate tip placed just in the corolla- 

 mouth. Ovary hairy. Fruit, often two or 3 ripening in a head, oblong or 

 ovoid a little complanated six-striate, glabrescent, smooth, with a very thin 

 pericarp, completely three-locular with thin dissepiments. Each cell contains 



