CANAGA ODORATA
The notice of Maximowicz,[1] "Ueber den Ursprung des Parfums Ylang-Ylang," contains only a confirmation of the derivation of the perfume from Cananga.
[Footnote 1: Just's "Botanischer Jahresbericht," 1875, 973.]
Cananga odorata is a tree attaining to a height of 60 feet, with few but abundantly ramified branches. The shortly petioled long acuminate leaves, arranged in two rows, attain a length of 18 centimeters and a breadth of 7 centimeters; the leaf is rather coriaceous, and slightly downy only along the nerves on the under side. The handsome and imposing looking flowers of the Cananga odorata occur to the number of four on short peduncles. The lobes of the tripartite leathery calyx are finally bent back. The six lanceolate petals spread out very nearly flat, and grow to a length of 7 centimeters and a breadth of about 12 millimeters; they are longitudinally veined, of a greenish color, and dark brown when dried. The somewhat bell-shaped elegantly drooping flowers impart quite a handsome appearance, although the floral beauty of other closely allied plants is far more striking. The filaments of the Cananga are very numerous; the somewhat elevated receptacle has a shallow depression at the summit. The green berry-like fruit is formed of from fifteen to twenty tolerably long stalked separate carpels which inclose three to eight seeds arranged in two rows. The umbel-like peduncles are situated in the axils of the leaves or spring from the nodes of leafless branches. The flesh of the fruit is sweetish and aromatic. The flowers possess a most exquisite perfume, frequently compared with hyacinth, narcissus, and cloves.
Cananga odorata, according to Hooker and Thomson or Bentham and Hooker,[1] is the only species of this genus; the plants formerly classed together with it under the names Unona or Uvaria, among which some equally possess odorous flowers, are now distributed between those two genera, which are tolerably rich in species. From Uvaria the Cananga differs in its valvate petals, and from Unona in the arrangement of the seeds in two rows.
[Footnote 1: "Genera Plantarum," i, (1864), 24.]
Cananga odorata is distributed throughout all Southern Asia, mostly, however, as a cultivated plant. In the primitive forest the tree is much higher, but the flowers are, according to Blume, almost odorless. In habit the Cananga resembles the Michelia champaca, L.,[1] of the family Magnoliaceæ, an Indian tree extraordinarily prized on account of the very pleasant perfume of its yellow flowers, and which was already highly celebrated in ancient times in India. Among the admired fragrant flowers which are the most prized by the in this respect pampered Javanese, the "Tjempaka" (Michelia champaca) and the "Kenangga wangi" (Cananga odorata)[2] stand in the first rank.
[Footnote 1: A beautiful figure of this also is given in Blume's "Flora Javæ," iii., Magnoliaceæ, tab. I.]
[Footnote 2: Junghuhn, Java, Leipsic, 1852, 166.]