THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 161 
CALATHEAS AND MARANTAS. 
(With Colowred Illustration of Calathea crocata.) 
BY GEORGE GORDON. 
exceedingly well suited for houses of comparatively small size; 
more especially as they can be placed between the tall-growing 
subjects—the draczenas, for example, so as to occupy, practically 
speaking, very little space. Their chief claims for consideration rest, 
however, upon the extreme beauty of their broad ample leafage, 
which, in some instances, is velvety in texture, and barred with 
various shades of green like the back of the zebra, and in others 
marked with clear, well-defined lines of white, or crescents of rose 
and white, on a deep olive green ground. The under surface, in 
most cases, being of a rich shade of vinous red, adds much to 
the attractiveness of the plants. The species here figured, Calathea 
crocata, belongs to the section having leaves plain on the upper sur- 
face, but it is none the less beautiful, for a full-grown specimen is 
very effective, and the combination of the pale green of the surface 
with the bright claret colour of the under side is exceedingly pleasing 
to the eye. These plants possess, apart from their beauty, consider- 
able interest, for it is from the tuberous roots of some of the marantas 
that the arrowroot of commerce is obtained. 
Those most grown for the sake of the starch, otherwise arrow- 
root, contained in their tuberous roots are Maranta arundinacea, M. 
allouya, WM. nobilis, and M. ramosissima, but neither of these should 
be grown by the amateur, or indeed in any private collection, for 
they are really only suitable for a botanic garden. 
The calatheas and marantas are so closely allied, that it is not 
easy, excepting to the botanist, to say where calathea ends and 
maranta begins, and for cultural purposes they may be considered 
one and the same. They are all natives of tropical America, and 
consequently require, for their successful cultivation, the temperature 
of an ordinary stove, a moderate degree of shade, and where growing 
freely, liberal supplies of water and a moderate degree of atmos- 
pheric humidity. Given these conditions, the amateur will ex- 
perience no very great trouble in producing first-class specimens. 
To begin with healthy plants is a point of some importance, but as 
under good management they increase in size very rapidly, it is not 
necessary to purchase plants larger than those of which the ordinary 
nursery stock consists. As they are usually kept in the smallest 
sized pot in which they can be maintained in a healthy condition, it 
is, as a rule, desirable to shift them into larger pots when they come 
to hand, to afford them an opportunity of making a vigorous growth 
11 
June, 
