4 



Descriptions of Malayan Plants. 



alternate, bifarious, short petioled upon their sheaths, broad 

 lanceolate, acuminate, narrow at the base, entire, very 

 smooth, the middle nerve somewhat pubescent. Sheaths 

 striated, slightly tomentose, with a short round ciliate ligula. 

 The base of the leaf-bearing stem is swelled into a tuber, 

 which throws out horizontal shoots of some feet in length, 

 of the thickness of a quill, and invested with membranous 

 sheaths. These shoots which run under ground send up 

 from their joints a number of biflorous peduncles or scapes, 

 which are enveloped in bracteal sheaths. Flowers generally 

 two, the one appearing after the other. At the base of 

 each flower is a single lanceolate acute reddish bract; 

 besides this, there is a tubular bract or involucrum surround- 

 ing the base of the germen, membranaceous, half as long as 

 the calyx, and deeply cleft on one side. Calyx superior^ 

 tubular, 2 or 8 cleft. Corolla white, tubular, upper part of 

 the tube villous within; exterior limb membranaceous, 3 

 parted, segments nearly equal; interior limb unilabiate, lip 

 broader above, rounded, thickened and yellow in the mid- 

 dle. Filament of the stamen broad, incumbent. Anther 

 short, thick, two-lobed, crowned with an erect three-lobed 

 crest. Style filiform ; stigma infundibuliform. Nectaries 

 two, linear, at the base of the style. Ovarium 3-celled, 

 many-seeded. 



ALPINIA ELATIOR. (W, J.J 



N, O, Scitaminece, 



Scapis radicalibus elatis, spicis ovatis, corollae labio inte- 

 gro basi mutico, foliis basi subcordatis glabris. 

 Bunga Kenchong. Malay. 



Found on Pulo Nias, also at Ayer Bangy on the west 

 coast of Sumatra. Cultivated at Malacca, 



The stems are from five to eight feet high, round, 

 somewhat compressed, smooth, striated. Leaves alternate, 



