rather small, above a span long, the petiole reduced to a spatha- 
ceous sheath, red at the base: from within this sheath the 
flexuose rachis appears, a span and more long, deep red, bearing, 
at. distances of an inch or more, each arising from a nodus, six 
or seven lanceolate, acuminate, bright red, conduplicate spathas, 
the lowest one six inches long, the rest gradually shorter and 
less acuminated. Flowers eight to ten in the axil of the sheath, 
mixed with a few yellow-white, small, lanceolate spathelle. Pe- 
dicels about an inch long, orange-colour. Ovary inferior, tur- 
binate, subtriangular, a little wrinkled, deep orange. Sepals 
white, tipped with yellow-green, three inches long, linear-oblong, 
acute, erect: three outer the longest, the sixth (upper one) 
very dwarf, a trowel-shaped scale. Stamens five, unequal. 
Anthers linear. Style a little shorter than the stamens. WV. J. H. 
Cun. This belongs to a genus of tropical plants inhabiting 
moist places, conspicuous by their fine broad leaves and showy 
flowers, which are borne on a kind of stem formed by the 
sheathing petioles, in some species attaining the height of eight to 
ten feet, and, slowly dying after having flowered; forming, with 
Thalia and other allied genera, dense thickets in their native 
localities. The present may be considered a dwarf species of the 
genus, as it does not attain more than between three and four 
feet in height. It requires to be kept in the stove, and grown 
in a large pot, planting it in light loam and supplying it freely 
with water durmg summer. Its creeping rhizoma-like roots soon 
fill the pot and produce a crowd of leafy stems; but in order to 
obtain a vigorous growth, it is necessary occasionally to divide 
- the roots, repotting them in fresh soil, which operation should be 
done in the autumn or early in the spring. J. 8. 
Fig. 1, Flowers with five larger sepals removed. 
