K AMPFERIA OVALIFOLIA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. II. SCITAMINER. 
filament extended beyond the anther; apex lobed. 
Spxc. Cuar.—Spike radical; leaves ovate 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther double ; 
-lanceolate, intirely green; filament three-lobed, middle lobe notched ; 
lip purple, bilobate ; lobes mucronate. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root consisting of large, ovate, fleshy tubers, with numerous fibres; lower leaves ovate; upper leaves 
lanceolate, with long sheathing petioles which are purpurescent at the base ; spike radical, rising before the leaves ; 
scape about four inches long, containing several flowers, which expand in succession; calyx superior, about half 
the length of the corolla, white ; tube of the corolla long, linear, erect, terminating with a double border; exterior 
border in three segments, long, narrow, equal, lanceolate, erect, white; interior border in three segments, the 
two upper segments oblong, ovate, equal, intire, pure white; the lower segment or lip purple, deeply divided into 
two lobes, each lobe obcordate, bifid, with a short mucronate process in the centre; claw yellow, with oblique purple 
streaks; filament erect, extended beyond the anther, terminating in three lobes, the middle lobe slightly notched, 
the others acute, intire; style long, slender, closely embraced at the base by two erect, subulate processes ; 
stigma concave, ciliated; germen three-celled ; seeds numerous. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This plant has been sent to the Botanic Garden in Liverpool, at three different times, from the East Indies, 
as K. ovalifolia ; yet it is not without considerable hesitation that we have been induced to publish it under that 
name; as it differs in so many striking particulars from the K. ovalifolia given in Dr. Roxburgh’s Coromandel 
Plants, and described in Flor. Ind. vol. i. p. 8. that we might have been fully justified in considering it as a 
different species. In that plant the spike appears to be central, rising with the leaves; whilst in ours it is lateral, and 
precedes the leaves. In the figure in Coromandel Plants, the leaves agree with the appellation, being oval, without 
petioles, bifarious, and spreading near the surface of the ground; in ours the lower leaves only are ovate, the upper 
ones being lanceolate, on long petioles, and the whole plant appearing to be of a different habit. When, however, we 
examine the corolla, we find such an exact concordance in its structure, and this structure is so different from that 
of any others coral to us of this genus, that we have thought it advisable to retain the name under which we 
received the plant. The peculiarity we refer to, consists in the termination or crest of the filament, which in all 
the other species of Kampferia which we have examined, is bifid, but in this plant is trifid, the middle lobe being 
also slightly indented or notched. It may indeed be said, that from the very recent importation of many of the 
Scitaminean plants into this country, we are but very imperfectly acquainted with their habits, and the variations 
of their growth; so that after all, it is not impossible that the diversities we have pointed out, between 
Dr. Roxburgh’s figure and our own, may not be specifically essential, or at most, may serve only to characterise 
these plants as varieties. 
REFERENCES. 
j. Intire flower. 
2, Bifid lip, and mucronate processes. 
3. Upper segments of the interior limb of corolla. 
4. Exterior limb of corolla. 
. Filament, anther, and crest. 
OU 
. Germen, style, with its supporting’ processes, and stigma. 
an 
