a perennial herb up to 2 ft. high; rhizome 8 lin. in diam. when dried; leaves nearly all radical, linear-lanceolate or linear, long-acuminate, tapering towards the base, up to 1 ft. long, nearly 1 in. wide, glabrous on both surfaces; sheath 8 in. to 1 ft. long, 4 lin. wide; ligule about 2 lin. long, membranous, rotundate or 2-lobed; scape arising outside the tuft of leaves; bracts, pedicels and ovary subterranean; flowers solitary or 3–6 racemosely arranged, hermaphrodite and female; hermaphrodite flower: calyx tubular, white, membranous, about 1 in. long, obtusely 3-toothed, split on one side about a third of the way down; corolla-tube 1 in. long; lobes 2 1/2 in. long, 7 lin. wide, lanceolate, acuminate, membranous, white; lateral staminodes erect, 3 in. long, 1 1/4 in. wide, obovate, pink; lip 2 1/2 in. long, 2 1/2 in. wide, bifid, pink with a yellow blotch at the base, united below with the lateral staminodes into a split tube 2 1/2 in. long; anther linear, 6 lin. long; connective produced above the cells into a toothed crest about 1 in. long and 5–6 lin. wide; style filiform; stigma crateriform, 3-lobed; female flower: calyx and corolla as in the hermaphrodite flower; staminodes very variable, 4–6, united into a yellow cylindrical tube about 3 in. long; lobes pink, sometimes one oblong, obtuse, 1 1/4 in. long, 7 lin. wide, with a yellow blotch at the base, and 5 others oblanceolate, unguiculate, obtuse, 4–5 lin. wide, sometimes 2–3 oblong, obtuse, 1–1 1/4 in. wide, alternating with 2–3 oblanceolate, unguiculate, about 5 lin. wide, when 5 are present 2 are broad and 3 narrow. null
