Flora Medica

ZINGIBERACEjE.furnished with a small tooth at the base on each side.Filamentlinear, scarcely prolonged beyond the emarginate anther. Capsuleberried, 3-celled. Seeds few or numerous, arilled. Plantswith thick tuberous horizontal roots. Stems many, perennial.Leaves bifarious, lanceolate, with a slit ligulate sheath. Inflorescencepanicled, or in loose racemes or spikes, terminal.Blume.1201. A. Galanga Swartz. obs. bot. 8. Rose, in Linn, trans.viii. 34-5. Roxb. fl.ind. i. 59. N. and E. handb. i. 255. *(Rumph. v. t. 63.) Sumatra ;cultivated hi the Indian Archipelago.Tubers faintly aromatic, strongly pungent, like a mixture of pepperand ginger, accompanied with some degree of bitterness. Stems perennial,or at least more durable than those of herbaceous plants, nearlyerect, round, smooth, about 6 or 7 feet high when in flower, and asthick as a slender walking-cane, invested with leafless sheaths up to themiddle. Leaves short-stalked, bifarious, lanceolate, white, and somewhatcallous at the margin, smooth, from 12 to 24 inches long, andfrom 4 to 6 broad ; ligula short, rounded, ciliate. Panicle terminal,erect, oblong, spreading, dichotomous each division with from 2 to;pale, greenish, somewhat fragrant flowers. Calyx smooth, white,scarcely the length of the corolla, 1-toothed. Corolla ;exterior limbof 3, nearly equal, linear, recurved, smooth, pale, greenish divisions ;inner, unguiculate, somewhat ascending, so as nearly to meet theslightly declining anther, oval or ovate-oblong, concave, deeply 2-lobed,minutely laciniate, white, with here and there a small reddish speck ;2 recurved, fleshy, coloured teeth at the base of the claw. Filamentrather longer than the claw. Apex of anther deeply emarginate, projectinghorizontally over the middle of the lip. Ovary smooth, oval,3-sided, 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell attached to the middle ofthe dissepiment. Style filiform. Stigma funnel-shaped, fringed : capsulethe size of a small cherry, obovate, smooth, deep orange-red,3-celled, indehiscent, externally fatiscent. Seed 1, rarely 2 in eachcell, much compressed, deep chesnut-colour, wrinkled, the size of agrain of black pepper. Aril enveloping the whole seed except the apex,thin, rather foliaceous, dull white. Testa thick, hard, spongy internally.Albumen white, friable, and very hard. Embryo simple, dull white,roundish, in the body of the albumen, and with the narrow, conicalradicle passing through it,and pointing to the hilum. The roots arethe Galanga major of the druggists, a pungent acrid aromatic, forming akind of substitute for ginger.1202. Besides the larger Galanga, there is a Galanga minorwhich according to Fee is very much smaller and has more energeticproperties than the former and which comes from Chinaand the Philippines. It is not known what plant producesit.1203. Renealmia exaltata Linn, suppl. 7- Alpinia exaltataMeyer esseq. 4. A. tubulata Bot. Reg. t. 777. A plant supposedto be at least related to this, if not identical, and called* The plant figured in Nees v. Esenbeck's medical plantsBlume to be Alpinia pyramidata.as A. Galanga, is said by Dr.568