THE CLASS MONANDBIA. 45 



or grasses, with leaves of an unusual breadth. The 

 flowers are commonly collected into clusters or spikes, 

 which gradually expand, and produce flowers of un- 

 usual brilliance, fragrance, or curiosity of structure. 

 Indeed, in the flowers of the genus Canna (or Indian 

 shot), so much augmented by accessions from India, 

 the specific, as well as generic, or family trait, resides 

 mostly in the variations of structure observable in the 

 flower. In all, the calyx, which is superior, or seated 

 upon the fruit, consists of three leaves, the corolla of 

 six parts, as among the Lilies, five of them erect, 

 and the sixth reflected backwards ; the seed-vessel is 

 also a capsule of three cells, each cell containing 

 several very hard, and rather large seeds, like Duck- 

 shot, and from hence it has received the common 

 name already given. From such a structure, we 

 should hardly be led to expect the presence of only 

 a single stamen ; it is also very curiously and un- 

 usually attached to the side of a petal, which answers 

 the purpose of a filament. The style itself, likewise 

 a petal, is entangled or attached to the petaloid fila- 

 ment. 



With the curious aquatic plant Hippuris, also of 

 this class, possessing scarcely any thing more of flow- 

 er than a style, anther, and single seed in the bosom 

 of a set of small verticillate or stellated leaves, I will 

 not detain you, as it is too uncommon here for a 

 familiar example ; and even the preceding, except 

 in the southern extremity of the Union, are only to 

 be sought for in the garden or green-house. 



