HEDYcniuM. 7y 



they are of a delicate light buff, which changes to a red-orange, 

 bill hardly to a scarlet colour, except the stamen. They are 

 fragrant, though of a different scent to H. coronavium.'^ 



Hedychium gracile, Eoxb. Flor. Ind., i. p. 12 is a slender 

 species about three feet in height, distinguished from H. 

 angiistifoliuni by its solitary-flowered spike, white corollas with 

 scarlet filament and broader leaves. There is a variety of this 

 with cream-coloured flowers. 



Hedychium villosum, Wallich, is a native of the mountains 

 north-east of Bengal. Its Khasee name is Kattia Ram Rait. This 

 beautiful species differs from H. gracile Eoxb. in the length and 

 villosity of its spikes, its copious fascicled flowers, and the equal 

 length of all the segments of the border, being altogether a larger 

 plant. Its pale, yellow flowers are delightfully fragrant even v:hen 

 dry, an interesting character which deserves space to detail 

 Wallich's complete analysis : — Stems upright, slender, smooth, as 

 well as the leaves, heis^ht from 2 to 3 feet. Leaves flat, lanceolar- 

 oblong, elevated from the back of the sheaths by a very short 

 petiole, glaucous beneath. Sheaths terminated by an oblong, 

 obtuse, closely adpressed, long ligula. Spike terminal, erect, 

 cylindric, obtuse, from 10 to 12 inches long ; all its parts covered 

 with a short seriaceous down. Bractes oval, much shorter than 

 the tube, of a reddish tint, exterior or common, 3-flowered 

 (seldom 2), flat ; interior bractes one to each flower, the base of 

 which it embraces. Flowers as above described but less succulent 

 than those of H. coronariinn and angustifolium Calyx very 

 slender, somewhat shorter than the filiform tube, which is 1^ inches 

 long ; mouth obliquely bifid. Border smooth ; segments linear, 

 sub-elevate, spreading, half the length of the tube ; divisions of the 

 claw or superior segment of the inferior border, linear-oblong, 

 obtuse. Filament as long as the tube, filiform, smooth, scarlet ; 

 anther very short, ovate, 2-lobed. Germ densely villous : stigma 

 slightly ciliated. 



Other fragrant species of Hedychium are H. speclosum, 

 "Wallich ; Eoxb. Flor. Ind. i. p. 13, with pale yellow flowers, a 

 native of the same countries as the preceding, called in the Khasee 

 vernacular, Kattia Lung Matti. 



* Hedychium coccineum, Smith, in Rees' Cy., very much resembles 

 H. angustifolium, but is reco^^nised by Wallich in his annotations to Koxb. 

 (Flor. Ind. i. p. 82) to be a distinct species. 



