P L A T E CC C C X X I .
R E N E A L M I A CALCARATA.
Upngh t-Jlowering Henealmia.
C L A S S L O R D E R I.
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. One Chive. One Pointai.
ESSENTIAL GENERIC CHARACTER.
CALTX superas, monophyHus, in 2 sive 3
dentes irregvilares rurapens. Corolla trifida.
Nectarium oblongtira. Anthera sessilis,
nectario opposita. Bacca carnosa,
trilocularis, profunde sulcata, et liirta.
Semina plurima, alte triincata, arillo
membranaceo niveo adpresso.
EMPALEMENT above the fruit, one-leafed,
breaking into 2 or 3 irregular teeth.
Blossom trifid. Nectary oblong. Chive
sessile, opposite to the nectary. Berry
fleshy, three-celled, profoundly snlcated,
and hairy. Seeds many,, deeply truncated,
and fiirnished with a membranous, closepressed,
snow-coloured exterior skin.
SPECIFIC CHARACTER.
RENEALMIA foliis lanceolato-ensiformibus, racemo
terminali erecto.
RENEALMTA with lance-sword-shaped leaves,
and an erect terminal racemus of flowers.
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REFERENCE TO THE PLATE.
1. The spathe.
2. A blossom divested of the chive and honey-cup.
3. The honey-cup.
4 . The sheath which crowns the seed-bud.
5 . The chive, pointal, and seed-bud.
6 . The same without its chive.
7. A transverse section of the seed-bud magnified.
THE new and elegant plant here figured was obligingly communicated to us in September last by
A . B, Lambert Esq. who informs us that it had grown vigorously to the height of about three feet in
the bark-bed of his hot-house, without showing flowers ; but tliat, on being removed from tlie tan and
placed upon the flue, it soon produced those which we have.here delineated; whence it is probable that
t h e check to its growth, occasioned by the mere change of situation, was the cause of its blooming, as in
other collections it has not hitherto done it. Mr. L. likewise informs us that its native country is Coromandel,
and that it is intended for publication by Dr. Roxburgh under the n ame of Amomum calcaratum ;
and showed us a drawing of it, so named, copied from one that was made in the East Indies from
a native si)ecimen, and which represents the plant somewhat slenderer and less upright than the individual
we have here depicted. •
Whoever will carefully investigate and compare our dissected figures of this plant with those which
a r e given with Renealmia nutans on our 36oth plate, will not only find that they precisely agree with
each other (as much as two distinct species of plants can do), but that both of them very sufficiently
correspond with the essential characters of the genus Renealmia : yet both are, no doubt, specifically
distinct from Renealmia exaltata; wherefore we have not hesitated to wi thdraw the pre,sent plant
f r om the genus Amomum, from which, independent of its widely different mode of flowering,
we believe it to be generically distinct. Neither are the above-mentioned all the species of
Renealmia we have a knowledge of; for even in the British gardens (exclusive of those whicli
have not yet been introduced to us alive) we are already acquainted with at least three more.
But how far some of these plants are distinct from the four diandrous Globbae enumerated by
Willdenow, and from Schrader's Zenimbet speciosum, which is a true Renealmia, we are not at present
prepared to determine ; yet cannot help remarking Üiat the last-mentioned plant should seem to resemble
the Globba Japónica of Thunberg;—that our present subject may resemble G. Marantina ;—
that G. nutans greatly resembles Renealmia nutans; and that at least one of the figures cited by Willdenow
for the former in Rumphius, is absolutely the same as R. nutans:—and, lastly, that R. exaltata
of I.inn. Supp. PI. possesses, in a very striking and remarkable manner, the extraordinary habit of the
remaining Globba uviformis.
As to cul ture, the.se are all stove plants, and in this country require the assistance of the tan-bed to
make them flourish. Rich earth and great plenty of pot-room are likewise requisite, and also a large
portion of water when they are vegetating briskly, but less when they are almost a t a stand,—which is
sometimes the case,—although they are never perfectly (|uiescent, as is common in the neighbouring
genus Amomum. They are propagated easily by parting their perennial roots.
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