the last-mentioned species, the Aromatica of Salisbury; and this has been repeated in Flora Indica, (vol. i. p. 233) 
at the same time he has described the true Zedoary, (the plant here figured,) under the name of Curcuma Zerumbet, 
by which name it is also figured and described in the Plants of the Coast of Coromandel, fig. 201. 
That some degree of doubt had existed respecting Dr. Roxburgh’s Curcuma Zedoaria, (the Aromatica of Salisbury, ) 
appears from Mr. Colebrooke’s comment upon it in Asiat. Researches, (vol. xi. p. 333,)- where he says, “ The 
Malabar and Malay names are given by Van Rheede and Rumphius for Zedoary ; and their descriptions are cited 
by Willdenow for this plant, but appear to suit better with the neat species of Curcuma,” (the true Zedoaria here 
figured, or Zerumbet of Roxburgh,) to which he adds, “ If the drug be not the true Zedoary, the synonime must be 
transferred to some other plant.” From what is here stated, it will appear that the doubts of Mr. Colebrooke 
were well founded. 
In the first place we must remark, that the name of Zerumbet, as applied to a Curcuma, has no existence, but 
as a synonime for Zedoaria, the Amomum Zerumbet of Linnzeus and Willdenow being a Zingther ; and that if it 
were to be adopted, the appellation of Zedoaria must be abolished altogether. Dr. Roxburgh has, however, not 
only given to the plant which produces the real drug called Zedoary, the name of another plant, but has transferred 
the name of Zedoaria to a plant which does not produce the drug—that is, from the plant described by Father 
Kamel, the leaves of which are smooth, with a large purple cloud on the surface, to a plant which is intirely green, 
with the leaves pubescent beneath ; and this is the more extraordinary, as in the description in Coromandel Plants, 
No. 201, it is stated, that “ the dried root of the plant there given as C. Zerumbet, agrees tolerably well with that 
called Zedoaria longa in Europe, but not with the drug there called Zerumbet.” 
Both these plants having now flowered in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, we are enabled to clear up the 
difficulty ; which we propose to do, by excluding the specific name of Zerumbet, as applied to a Curcuma, (except 
as a synonime of some authors for Zedoaria,) and restoring the name of Aromatica to the plant of Salisbury, under 
which name it is accordingly figured in the present work. 
Dr. Woodville, in his Medical Botany, (vol. ii. p. 362,) informs us, that “ the roots of Zedoaria longa and 
rotunda, are both produced by the same species of plant, and are indiscriminately used in the shops,” and that “ on 
the authority of Linnzus, the Colleges of London and Edinburgh have referred the officinal Zedoary to Kempferia 
rotunda,” to which plant it is ascribed in Dr. Woodville’s work. How far the disuse into which this once favourite 
medicine has fallen, may be attributed to this mistake is uncertain; but that these plants are generically different, 
and that the true Zedoaria longa is the root of the plant here figured, are facts now ascertained 6 although it is not 
unlikely that the Zedoaria rotunda is produced by a Kzempferia. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Calyx and corolla, the outer limb depressed. 
2. Calyx and corolla, the outer limb erect. 
3. Calyx and corolla without the lip, shewing the broad three-lobed filament, calcarate 
anther, style and stigma. 
4. The lip detached from the corolla. 
