_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 Magnoliaceae, 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
Javae," iii., Magnoliaceae, tab. I.]

[Footnote 2: Junghuhn, Java, Leipsic, 1852, 166.]

It is not known to me whether the oil of cananga was prepared in former
times. It appears to have first reached Europe about 1864; in Paris and
London its choice perfume found full recognition.[1] The quantities,
evidently only very small, that were first imported from the Indian