54 6 



MARANTACEAE. 



VOL. I. 



Family 30. MARANTACEAE Lindl. Nat. Syst. 1830. 



ARROWROOT FAMILY. 



Tall herbs, perennial by rootstocks or tubers, or sometimes annual, with 

 scapose or leafy stems, mostly large entire long-petioled sheathing leaves, often 

 swollen at the base of the blade, the veins pinnate, parallel. Flowers perfect or 

 sometimes polygamous, irregular, in panicles, racemes or spikes. Perianth supe- 

 rior, its segments distinct to the summit of the ovary or united into a tube, normally 

 in 2 series of 3, the outer (sepals) usually different from the inner (petals). Per- 

 fect stamen I ; anthers i-2-celled. Staminodia mostly 5, often petal-like, separate 

 or united by their bases, very irregular. Ovary i-3-celled, inferior; ovule I in 

 each cavity, anatropous ; style slender, curved, terminal ; stigma simple. Fruit 

 capsular or berry-like, i-3-celled. Seed solitary in each cavity. Embryo central, 

 in copious endosperm. 



About 12 genera and 160 species, mostly in the tropics, a few in warm-temperate regions. 



i. THALIA L. Sp. PI. 1193. 1753. 



Annual (or perennial?) herbs, with large long-petioled basal leaves, erect simple scapes 

 and terminal panicled spikes of bracted usually purple flowers. Sepals 3, membranous, sepa- 

 rate, equal. Petals 3, separate or somewhat coherent at the base. Staminodia slightly united 

 below, one of them (labellum) broad, crested. Anther i-celled. Ovary i-celled or with 2 

 additional small empty cavities. Base of the style adnate to the base of the stamen-tube. 

 Stigma 2-lipped, dorsally appendaged. Capsule globose or ovoid. Seed erect. Embryo 

 strongly curved. [In honor of Johann Thalius, German naturalist of the sixteenth century.] 



About 7 species, all American. Besides the following, another occurs in the southern States. 

 Type species : Thalia geniculata L. 



^1 



i. Thalia dealbata Roscoe. Powdery Thalia. 

 Fig. I35 2 - 



Thalia dealbata Roscoe, Trans. Linn. Soc. 8: 340. 1807. 



Plant finely white-powdery nearly all over. Scapes 

 rather stout, terete, 3-6 tall; petioles i-2i long, 

 terete ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate at 

 the apex, rounded, narrowed or subcordate at the 

 base, 2-i long, 3'-s' wide; panicle 8'-i8' long, its 

 spikes numerous, usually erect or ascending; bracts 

 of the panicle narrow, deciduous, not longer than the 

 spikes ; bractlets ovate, unequal, coriaceous, about *' 

 long; flowers purple, longer than the bractlets; cap- 

 sule ovoid, about 4" in diameter. 



In ponds and swamps, South Carolina to Louisiana, 

 Missouri and Texas. 

 U - u^" 



Family 31. BURMANNIACEAE Blume, Enum. PI. Jav. i: 27. 1830.* 



BURMANNIA FAMILY. 



Low annual herbs, with filiform stems and fibrous roots. Leaves basal or 

 reduced to cauline scales or bracts. Flowers regular, perfect, the perianth with 

 6 small thick lobes, its tube adnate to the ovary. Stamens 3 or 6, included, 

 inserted on the tube of the perianth ; anthers 2-celled, the sacs transversely dehis- 

 cent. Style slender; stigmas 3, dilated; ovary inferior, with 3 central or parietal 

 placentae. Ovules numerous. Capsule many-seeded. Seeds minute, oblong; 

 endosperm none. 



Ten genera and about 70 species, widely distributed in tropical regions. The family is repre- 

 sented in North America by the following genus and by Apteria of the Gulf States. 



* Text contributed to the first edition by the late Rev. THOMAS. MORONG. 



