ZEDOAEIA. 83 



in his description and figure in his " Herbarium Amboinense," v. 

 p. 168, t. Q8. AYith the exception of the final letter being a t, it 

 is the same word as used by Garcias. The Malay name Tomon is 

 also used by Paimphius both to this plant and to C. Zedoaria. 



The Hindu name is given as Cachur, Cachani and Kuchoora. 



It is a native of Chittagong, from which place the Bengal supply 

 is derived. Eoxburgh's description of this plant states that the 

 root consists, as in all other species of this genus, of ovate bulbs, 

 giving support to the parts above ground ; from their opposite 

 sides spring the palmate tubers ; these two sorts are inwardly of 

 a pale yellow, or straw colour, and possess an agreeable camphor- 

 aceous smell, and warm, bitterish, spicy taste. 



The proper fibrous roots issue chiefly from the bulbs ; some of 

 them are thicker than others, penetrate deeper into the soil, and 

 end in an oblong, pearl-coloured, solid tuber, which is spongy and 

 less fragrant when cut than the bulbs and palmate tubers. The 

 stems are as in C. Zedoaria : the heigrht of the whole plant beino- 

 from three to three-and-a-half feet. The leaves are from four to six 

 together, sub-bifarious, and a rather long, winged petiole intervenes 

 between each and its stem-forming base. The leaf itself is one to 

 two feet in length, broad-lanceolar, fine-pointed and smooth on both 

 sides, marked with numerous fine parallel veins ; constantly a dark 

 purple cloud runs down the centre. The scape rises distinct 

 from the leafy stems, being five or six inches long, and surrounded 

 with a few obtuse, lax, green sheaths of various length. The spike 

 is tufted, four or five inches long, and exactly as in C. Zedoaria ; 

 the superior half of the large coloured ones, which, from the tufts, 

 are generally sterile, and of a deeper crimson or purple colour 

 than those which contain flowers. The calyx is scarcely one-third 

 the length of the corolla, and is irregularly three-toothed. The 

 €orolla is funnel-shaped. The tube a little curved. The border 

 •double, exterior three-parted, the two lateral segments equal, the 

 third or upper one vaulted and crowned with a subulate point ; 

 colour a very faint yellow. The interior is three-parted ; lower 

 segment or lip broad, deep yellow, projecting, recurved, bifid ; the 

 upper or lateral segments obovate, equal, pale yellow, nearly as 

 long as the lip. The filament, anther and germ are as in C. 

 Zedoaria. The style is slender at the base, embraced by two 

 nectarial filaments. The stigma is two lobed, crowning the anther. 



