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Alpinia (Supplement)

Of this genus nearly forty species have been noted; they are found in tropical and sub-tropical Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. To those described on p. 54, Vol. I., the following should now be added:

A. officinarum (officinal). fl. white, sessile in a simple spike; lip oblong, obtuse, entire or emarginate, the disk nerved with blood-red. Winter. l. narrow-lanceolate, caudate-acuminate, highly glabrous, narrowed to a sessile sheath at base; sheath elongated, produced in an erect ligule. Stem tuberous at base, erect, leafy. South China. (B.M. 6995.)

A. pumila (dwarf). fl. about 1in. long, in a short, rather dense spike, about two to each bract, sessile, sub-erect; calyx bright red; corolla pink, the lip recurved or almost revolute; scape or flowering stem radical, about 2in. long. April. l. two or three together, erect from the rootstock, 4in. to 6in. long, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, green, with whitish stripes, pale green beneath; petioles 2in. to 4in. long, sheathing below. Lo-fan-Shan Mountains, China, 1883. (B.M. 6832.) A. zingiberina (Zingiber-like). fl. erect, 1in. long; calyx about 1/3in. long; lateral and dorsal lobes of the corolla pale green; lip white, veined crimson, broadly ovate, obtuse; panicle nearly erect, 10in. to 12in. long. July. l. 10in. to 12in. long, 3in. broad, oblanceolate-oblong, acute and abruptly cuspidate, glabrous. Stems 4ft. to 5ft. high. Rhizomes 1in. in diameter, resembling ginger. Siam, 1884. (B.M. 6944.)