hairs, except for about an inch below the blade, where it 
is glabrous and swollen; sheath membranous, patently 
hairy, red-spotted. Scape 6-10 in. high, yellowish, spotted 
with red; bracts lanceolate, yellowish or pale green, 
clothed with red hairs; bracteoles lanceolate, glabrous, 
hyaline; spike about 6 in. long; flowers in pairs beneath 
each bract, about 1 in. in diameter. Sepals linear-lanceo- 
late, acuminate, hirsute. Corolla pale yellow; tube hir- 
sute, cylindrical, about 1 in. long; lobes lanceolate, about 
half as long as the tube. Staminodes pale yellow; the 
outer obovate-oblong, 3 in. long; the inner like the outer, 
but slightly shorter; the hooded one about 4 in. long. 
Ovary yellow-silky at the apex.—C. H. Wricur. 
Cultiv.—Both Calatheas and Marantas give a_ better 
account of themselves when they are planted in a border 
of light rich soil than when kept confined in flower-pots. 
This is abundantly proved by the behaviour of a selection 
of the two genera in the Nepenthes House at Kew, where, 
along with various other plants of similar habit and re- 
quirements, they are used to furnish a rockery border 
under the Nepenthes, which are grown in_ baskets 
suspended from the roof. The growth of the Cala- 
theas in this house is so vigorous that some of them 
become quite changed in character. C. angustifolia is 
usually a small and unattractive plant, but here it has 
formed a stately mass of elegant leaves 4 ft. high, dark 
green above, purple below, the petioles prettily mottled, 
whilst the flower scapes are 10 in. high, the upper half 
crowded with cream-yellow flowers, and looking not unlike 
a good yellow hyacinth. All the species enjoy a light 
rich soil, plenty of moisture, shade, and a tropical 
_ temperature—W. Watson. 
Fig. 1, sepal; 2, flower ; 3, stamen and staminodes ; 4, cucullate staminode : 
—all enlarged ; 5, sketch of the whole plant, much reduced. 
