Curtis's Botanical Magazine/Volume 58/3039
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( 3039 )
Hedychium flavum. Large Yellow-flowered Hedychium.
❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈❈
Class and Order.
Monandria Monogynia.
( Nat. Ord.—Scitamineæ. Br. )
Generic Character.
Anthera duplex, stylum amplectens. Filamentum longum, gracile, antheram in apicem sustinens ligamento flexili dorso affixo. Capsula 3-locularis. Semina numerosa, arillata. Rosc.
Specific Character and Synonyms.
Descr. Roots exceedingly large and thick. Stems several, thick, four to five feet high, at the bottom fully an inch in diameter, slightly compressed upwards, and there, as well as on the rib of the leaves, furnished, though scantily, with long, appressed, deciduous hairs. Leaves very large, elliptical, twelve to fourteen inches long, as broad as one's hand, nearly sessile on their sheaths, sides bent down,
upper surface glabrous, pale beneath; the lowermost leaves shorter. Sheaths ample, with a membranous margin, elegantly lineated, and having a large, obtuse, appressed ligule. Spike terminal, large, shorter than the uppermost leaves, consisting of loosely imbricated, coriaceous, broad, ovate, smooth, four-flowered bracteas, each about three inches long ; inner bracteas thin and membranaceous, much smaller than the outer ones. Flowers very large; orange coloured, highly fragrant. Calyx two inches long, oblong at the upper end, subventricose and split on one side, much bearded, entire. Tube of the Corolla cylindrical, two inches and a half long, double the length of the calyx; limb spreading; exterior laciniæ linear, acute, loosely patent, about fourteen lines long; inner two (or lateral ones) cuneate, unguiculate, rather shorter than the outer ones, but their apex much broader than those, shortly clawed. Lip very large, roundish, retuse, lateral margins sometimes notched, an inch and a half in diameter, furnished with a short, broad claw. Filament divaricate, thick, semicylindrical, orange-coloured, equalling in length the inner petals, rather, though very little, shorter than the lip. Anther oblong, thick, fleshy, half an inch long, with a saggitate, bilobate base, the lobes of which are slenderish. Ovary thick ovate, obscurely triangular, shining, smooth: Style filiform, pallid, with the usual two short, yellow bodies at its base (within the tube): Stigma rather large, clavate, compressed, transverse, obtuse and convex, greenish-yellow, villous. Wallich.
The present is one among many fine plants, for specimens and drawings of which I have again to acknowledge W. T. Aiton Esq. A root of Hedychium flavum was brought by Dr. Wallich from India, in August, 1828, and presented by the Hon. the East India Company to Kew Gardens, where it produced its magnificent blossoms in the same month of the present year.
The specimen was received through Dr. Wallich, and that most enlightened and most liberal of Botanists, not withstanding his numerous and important engagements, has been so kind as to draw up the above account of it for me, although there is already an accurate description in Flora Indica; partly, as he says, because he never saw the plant in such perfection before, as it was produced at Kew, and partly, because it seems possible, that the roots may have derived from the mountains on the
Irawaddi, in the Burma country, where he collected some; whereas, the specimens described in Flora Indica came from Sylhet.
Dr. Wallich note in the Flora Indica is as follows:
In January, 1816, I received roots of this most charming species from Mr. Smith, at Sylhet, which produced blossoms in the Botanic Garden, during October of the following year. It differs from H. coronarium, in regard to its flowers, which are about one-third smaller, having the inner segments of the corolla linear-clavate, the fissure of the lip narrow, with straight sides, and its base contracted into a linear claw. They partake not only of the yellow colour of those of Michelia Champaca, but possess even the peculiar fragrance of the latter, only in a less powerful, and therefore, more grateful degree. In stature and leaves both species are alike."
Fig. 1. Flower. 2. Style and Stigma.––Nat. size.
- ↑ Not of Sims in Botanical Magazine, t. 2378, which is Hed. flavescens. (Wall.)