Descriptions of Malayan Plants, 5 



bifarious, petiolate on their sheaths, ovate-oblong, broad, 

 subcordate at the base, acuminate, very smooth on both 

 sides, pohshed above, straited with fine parallel nerves ; 

 from one to two feet long, I^igula of the sheaths rounded. 

 Scapes, rising at a little distance from the stems, two or 

 three feet high, erect, round, smooth, invested by sheaths 

 which are rounded at their points and mucronate below the 

 apex. Spikes short, thick, ovate, compact, densely covered 

 with flowers. The lower bracts are of a fine rosy colour, 

 large and spreading so as to form a kind of involucre to the 

 head ; the upper bracts are shorter, imbricated, oblong or 

 tongue-shaped, rosy with white ciliate edges, each support- 

 ing a single flower. The involucel or inner bract which 

 embraces the ovary is tubular and irregularly bifid, being 

 cloven more deeply on one side than the other. Calyx red- 

 dish, deeply cloven on one side, by which the three regular 

 segments become secund. Corolla, outer limb three parted, 

 segments nearly equal, erect, the upper one rather the 

 largest; inner limb unilabiate, longer than the outer, lip 

 ascending, involving the anther, deep purplish red with yel- 

 low edge, rhomboid-ovate, entire, somewhat crisped at the 

 point, without spurs or sterile filaments at the base. Stamen 

 shorter than the lip; anther naked. Style as long as the 

 anther. Stigma thick, triangular, anteriorly concave. Ovary 

 sericeously pilose, three-celled, many-seeded. 



Obs, — This is a very remarkable species, easily distin- 

 guished from the otfier Alpiniae with radical inflorescence 

 by the great height of the scapes, and the fine rosy colour 

 of the lower bracts. 



ALPINIA CAPITELLATA. (W. J,) 



Foliis longe petiolatis supra glabris, racemo terminal! 

 composito, capituhs florum bracteis involucratis. 

 In the interior of Bencoolen. Malacca, 



