into tubers and leaves capable of reproducing the
plaut, and further for the purpose of informing many
persons in India, who take an interest in such inquiries,
that they are American not Asiatic plants.
The plant from which the accompanying figure was
taken grew at Palamcottah. I t may perhaps be
noticed, with surprise by some, that this is said to
be stemless notwithstanding its gigantic stem of some
20 or 30 feet high. The stem in this case, however,
is not a true stem, but a scape or flower stalk, terminating
in a large panicle of flowers and viviperous
buds. I t is in truth the same in kind, only much
larger, as the flower stalks of the preceding Crinums.
Wildenow calls it a branched scape. I have, taken
the liberty of altering the expression and called it a
panicled one, in contradistinction to a spiked and
racemed one, which it actually is. The Agave Americana,
or as it is usually called, American Aloe, now
so common all over the country, belongs to the same
genus, and, as the name imports, comes from the
same country. They are not aloes. Rumpbius has
introduced a figure of th is. plant into his Herb.
Amboynensis, apparently, on the supposition of its
being indigenous in that island.
2025. F ourcrota gigantea (Ventenat), stemless:
leaves entire: scape panicled.
This, as remarked above, is also an introduced
plant common about Bangalore and Seringapatam
as a hedge row plant. I t is distinguished geuerically
from the other by its perianth, the filaments being
dilated at the base, the large fleshy protuberance at
the base of the style and erowning the ovary, and by
the fringed stigma. Like the preceding it is also viviperous.
The drawing was taken from plants growing
at Bangalore.
2026. Alpin ia R h eedii (R. W., Rheede Hort.
Mai. 11. tab. 14), leaves sub-sessile from broad lanceolate
obtuse to lanceolate, cuspidate: panicle terminal,
erect, many-flowered: outer series linear, obtuse,
somewhat concave, lip unguiculate, sub-orbicular, 2-
lobed claw with two dilatations at the base (lateral
lobes of the inner perianth) each terminating in a
subulate point, capsules globose, slightly downy.
Malabar, Courtallum. Roxburgh quotes Rheede’s
plate for his Alpinia Allugas, and, judging from his
description, except the lip which he does mention as
unguiculate, not without reason, but he at the same
time quotes Roscoe as his authority for the name.
Roscoe’s plant, as represented in his Monandrean
Scitaminious plants, seems to me totally different
from both Rheede’s and mine, which quite correspond,
hence I am precluded from adopting his name.
Such being the case, I have found it necessary to
view this as a new species and have given it the
name of the original discoverer. One circumstance
of note is the character given of the appendages at
the base of the claw described by Roxburgh as “ two
fleshy protuberances near the base.” In my plant
they are flat, somewhat coriaceous, ascending, and
each terminates in an erect subulate tooth, but not
well represented in the plate. They are coloured,
for even in the dry plant they remain darker—-a
reddish brown—than the claw to which they belong.
I dare say it is scarcely necessary to mention that
they are the rudimentary lateral lobes of the inner
series of the perianth, which, in this genus and in I
Coslus, is reduced to the lip with occasionally two
subulate teeth at the base. In Roscoe’s plate of A.
Allugas they are represented as globose fleshy bodies.
This, when grown in favourable circumstances, seems
to be a very handsome plant, the panicles being large
and the flowers very numerous.
2027. Al pinia nutans (Roscoe), leaves lanceolar,
short petioled, smooth: racemes compound by the
lower pedicels being two or three-flowered, drooping:
lip large ovate, cordate, obscurely three-lobed at the
base; middle lobe curled on the margin: ovary
hairy, oval, 3-celled: ovules attached to the middle
of the partitions: capsules globose, sprinkled with
short hairs.
The specimen (which at the time happened to be
my only available one) taken to convey an idea of
this most gorgeous plant is so unfit for the purpose
that I was only induced to use it as presenting an
unusual form, an erect in place of a drooping raceme—
as most conspicuously showing the spathe in which
it is at first enclosed; the small leaf at the end often
enlarges so much that the spathe portion becomes
obscured—and lastly, but principally, because at the
time the drawing was made it was virtually the
only species of the genus I had, my others having
accidentally got mislaid. I t does not convey so good
an idea of the characters of the species as I could
wish, but it was for the sake of illustrating the genus
it was used and that it does well, by showing S i its
characters. Here we see the large common spathe
of the whole panicle; at fig. 1, a partial spathe
enclosing several flowers, at 2, that opened showing
one flower open and an unopened bud. The unopened
one encloses in addition to its own flowers
another younger bud. The dissected flower, fig. 3,
shows the perfect exterior series of the perianth and
the lip, but ho lateral lobes of the inner series, these
are not constant and seem to have been absent in
this specimen, as the examination of several flowers
gave no sign of their presence, though I have since
seen indications in another specimen: it also shows
the stamen and style in situ, the anther without appendage
of any sort. Fig. 5 shows the ovary with
the perfect and rudimentary styles, figures 6 and 7,
transverse and vertical sections of the ovary, the
former showing the placentas attached to the middle
of the partitions, not to the edges in the axis. Fig.
8 presents a full grown capsule, 9 a seed, 10 the same
cut so as to show the position of the embryo and
11-12 two embryos detached showing their very
peculiar form; they are flattened, somewhat foliace-
ous, with the radicle springing from the middle and
pointing towards the hilum.
2028. Al pinia calcarata (Roscoe), flowers terminal,
spike slightly declined, downy; lip large ovate,
crenate, slightly bifid; spurred at the b a se : leaves
narrow lanceolate, unequal-sided. Roscoe.
Shevagherry Hills, flowering August.
The only point in which the figure differs from
the character is the undivided lip, and that as shown
in Roscoe’s plate is sometimes reduced to mere slight
emargination, so that I have no doubt of this being
the true "plant. Fig. 5 represents an unusual form,
a diandrous flower, the stamens being attached on
either edge of the lip. The flower represented was
the only one I could find on the specimen.
19 >