the source of the greater or Java galangal root of commerce. Mr.
Watson, of Kew, appears to have been the first to suggest that the
Chinese ginger plant is probably a species of _Alpinia_, and possibly
identical with the Siam ginger plant, which was described by Sir J.
Hooker in the _Botanical Magazine_ (tab. 6,946) in 1887 as a new
species under the name of _Alpinia zingiberina_. Mr. J.G. Baker, in
working up the Scitamineæ for the "Flora of British India," arrived at
the conclusion that it is not distinct from the _Alpinia Galanga_,
Willd. The Siam and Chinese gingers are therefore identical, and both
are the produce of _Alpinia Galanga_, Willd.

* * * * *




FLOATING ELEVATOR AND SPOIL DISTRIBUTOR.


We illustrate a floating elevator and spoil distributor constructed by
Mr. A.F. Smulders, Utrecht, Holland, for removing dredged material out
of barges at the Baltic Sea Canal Works. We give a perspective view
showing the apparatus at work, and on a page plate are given plans,
longitudinal and cross sections, with details which are from
_Engineering_. The dredged material is raised out of the launches or
barges by means of a double ranged bucket chain to a height of 10.5
meters (34 ft. 5 in.) above the water line, from whence it is pushed
to the place of deposition by a heavy stream of water supplied by
centrifugal pumps.