346 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



Per. and Seeds not yet seen. 



Scape thickish,very short. Carol richly fragrant; tube 

 and exterior border milk-white, divisions dropping, as 

 if sensitive, on the slightest touch, and soon yielding 

 to the pressure of the air ; interior border purple, the 

 higher divisions diluted, the lower deeply coloured 

 within, variegated near the base. One or two flow- 

 ers blow every morning in April or May, and wither 

 entirely before sun-set : after the spike is exhausted, 

 rise the large leaves keeled, broad- lanced, membra- 

 nous nerved, Root with many roundish, or rather 

 spindle-shaped bulbs. 



This plant is clearly the Benchapo of Rheede, 

 whose native assistant had written Bliu on the draw- 

 ing, and intended to follow it with Champa: the spicy 

 odour and elegance of the flowers , induced me to 

 place this Kjempferia (though generally known) in 

 a series of select Indian plants ; but the name Ground 

 Champ ac is very improper, since the true Champaca 

 belongs to a different order and class ; nor is there 

 any resemblance between the two flowers, except that 

 both have a rich aromatic scent. 



Among all the natural orders, there is none in, 

 which the genera seem less precisely ascertained by 

 clear essential characters, than in that which (for 

 want of a better denomination) has been called scita- 

 mineous ; and the judicious Retz, after confessing 

 himself rather dissatisfied with his own generic ar- 

 rangement, which he takes from the border of the 

 corol, from the stamen, and principally from the an- 

 jher, declares his fixed opinion, that the genera in 



this 



