DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF FLOWERS. 151 



braces about one hundred species. Several, which were 

 formerly included in it, have been removed to other gene- 

 ra. See Specularia and Platycodon. 



CANNA. SHOT PLANT. 



[From a Celtic word, signifying a cane or reed.] 



The Cannas are mostly tropical plants, from four to 

 eight feet high, with elegant foliage. 



Canna patens, Indica, and coccmnea, are found wild 

 within the tropics on all the continents, and chiefly in 

 moist woods, or spongy, woody wastes. In Brazil and 

 other parts of America, they are known by the name of 

 "Wild Plantain, and their leaves are used as envelopes for 

 many objects of commerce. In Spain and Portugal, the 

 inhabitants use the seed for making their rosaries ; in the 

 East Indies, the seeds are sometimes used as shot. The 

 seeds of most of the species are round,- hard, black, shin- 

 ing, heavy, and about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. 



Caima Indica. Indian Shot. This is the most 

 common species, and succeeds well as an annual if the 

 plants are started in a hot-bed. If the seeds are planted 

 in pots, and plunged in the bed when it has its greatest 

 heat, the plants will soon appear ; and, if turned into the 

 ground in June, will make large plants^ which will flower 

 in July and August. In the green-house, it is a perennial, 

 and may be propagated by dividing the roots. 



This is desirable, not only for the beauty of its spikes 

 of scarlet flowers, but also for its elegant foliage. The 

 leaves are of a rich deep green, three feet long and four 

 to six inches wide ; very handsome as they unfold them- 

 selves ; the flower-stem rises five or six feet high. 



I have cultivated twelve or thirteen of the different 

 species, all of them characterized by long, broad, and 



