zingiber

[Lat. zingiber i, from Gr.zinggi Bot.: Ginger; the typical genus of Zingiberacese. Indian herbs with creeping, jointed, woody rootstocks; leaves in two ranks, sheathing the stem, flowers in conical spikes, inner limbs of the corolla with only one lip, and the anther with a simple recurved horn at the end. Zingiber of ficin ale is the Common Ginger; it is cultivated throughout India. [GINGER.] Z. ca umunar is said to be carminative, like the former species. zin-gi-ber-ā-çe-æ, s. pl. [Mod. Lat. zingiber; Lat. fem. pl. adj. suff.- aceœ.] Bot .: Ginger worts; an order of Endogens, the typical one of the alliance Amomales. Aromatic herbs, with a creeping, often jointed rhizome. Stem simple, formed of the cohering bases of the leaves; leaves simple, sheathing, with a single midrib, from which very numerous parallel veins diverge at an acute angle and proceed to the margin; flowers generally in pairs, and lying among spathaceous bracts; calyx superior, short, tubular, three-lobed; corolla, tubular, irregular, with six segments in two whorls, the inner, morphologically viewed, being transformed sterile stamens, untransformed stamens three, two of them abortive; filament of the former not petaloid; anther, two-celled; style filiform; stigma, dilated, hollow; ovary, more or le perfectly three-celled, with the placenta in the axis; fruit, usually a capsule, three, or some times one celled; seeds, many. Closely akin to Marantacese, with which they were formerly combined, but differ in their two-celled anther, and in the po e ion of a vitellus round the embryo. Natives of the East Indies and some other tropical countries. Genera, twenty-nine; species 247. ( Lind ley .) zin-gi-ber-ā-ceo us, (ce as sh,) a . [Mod. Lat. zinziberace ( œ ); English adj. suff. -ous .] Of or pertaining to ginger or the Zingiberaceae (q. v.). zińk-en-ite, s. [ZINCKENITE.]