. 
Tas. 7674. 
CALATHEA piorta. 
Native of Brazil. 
Nat. Ord. ScrtaMINEzZ.—Tribe MaranTE&. 
Genus CatatuEa, G. F, W. Mey; ont & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii 
p. 653.) 
Catatnea (Eucalathea) picta; caule robusto basin versus paucifoliato dein 
elongato nudo infra pedunculum terminalem crassum bifoliato, foliis 
6-8-pollicaribus patentibus petiolatis ovato-oblongis lanceolatisve acumi- 
natis supra saturate viridibus costam versus albo-variegatis, subtus rubro- 
pureis, petiolo crasso fusco-purpureo, vagine auriculis rotundatis, in- 
Rarcocantes terminali strobiliformi 4 poll. longa ad 1}-poll. diam., bracteis 
quaquaversum laxe imbricatis, 1-14 poll. latis late obovato-rotundatis 
acutis erecto-patentibus basi breviter vaginantibus stramineis rubro 
marginatis infima majore, floribus ad 1} poll. longis bracteis paullo 
longioribus albis, sepalis linearibus acutis, corolla tubo sepalis squilongo 
lobis zquilongis late ovatis obtusis postico paullo latiore suberecto 
lateralibus patenti-recurvis, androscii breviter exserti lobis subaquilongis, 
labello apice 3-lobo. 
C. picta, Hook. f. 
Maranta (Calathea) picta, Bull. Cat. New Pl. (1898) No. 324, p. 6, et ic. p. 4. 
A very handsome species of a large tropical chiefly 
S. American genus, of which nothing more is known than 
that it was imported from Brazil by Mr. Bull, when it re- 
ceived an Award of Merit from the Royal Horticultural 
Society. The figure given by Mr. Bull in his Catalogue is 
evidently of a plant in a very young state, with much 
broader leaves than those of the flowering specimen here 
figured, and with much more pronounced white markings 
on the leaves, extending in a fan-shape from the midrib 
more than half way across the blade. It flowered in a 
stove in the Royal Gardens, Kew, in December, 1898. 
Descv.—Quite glabrous. Stem three to four feet high, 
very stout, with a few leaves towards the base, above 
which it is naked till just below the peduncle of the in- 
florescence, where two smaller sub-opposite leaves appear. 
Leaves (lower) six to eight inches long, by two to two and 
a half broad, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, base 
sub-acute, rather thick, dark velvety green above, with 
SEPTEMBER Ist, 1899, 
