CAN 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



CAN 



239 



Canella ; a genus of the class Dodeeandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. (JKNKHIC CHARACTER. Callx : perianth one-leafed, 

 three-lobeil ; lobes roundish, concave. Corolla: petals five, 

 oblong, sessile, longer than the calix ; two a little narrower 

 than the rest ; nectary pitcher-shaped, the length of the 

 petals, anther-bearing. Stamina : filamenta none ; antherae 

 twenty-one, linear, parallel, distinct, fastened on the outside 

 to the nectary. Pistil: germen superior, within the nec- 

 tary, ovate ; style cylindric, the length of the nectary ; 

 stigmas two, blunt, convex, wrinkled. Pericarp: berry ob- 

 long, three-celled. Seeds -. roundish, kidney-shaped, in pairs 

 cordate. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: three-lobed. Corolla: 

 five-petalled. Antherce: twenty-one, fastened to a pitcher- 

 shaped nectary. Berry: three-celled. Seeds: two to four. 

 The only species known is. 



1. Canella Alba ; Laurel-leaved Canella. This is a tree, 

 the stem of which rises from ten to fifty feet in height, very 

 straight and upright, and branched only at the top. It is 

 common in most of the West India islands, and is frequently 

 found near the coast ; then seldom exceeding twelve or fif- 

 teen feet ; in the inland woods it attains a more considerable 

 height. The whole tree is very aromatic, and when in blos- 

 som perfumes the whole neighbourhood ; the flowers dried 

 and softened again in warm water, have a fragrant odour, 

 nearly approaching to that of musk; the leaves have a strong 

 smell of laurel. The berries, after having been some time green 

 turn blue, and become at last of a black colour and glossy, 

 with a faint aromatic taste and smell : when ripe, the white- 

 bellied and bald-pate pigeons feed greedily upon them, and 

 thence acquire their peculiar flavour. The bark of this plant, 

 and the fruit of capsicum, were formerly common ingredients 

 in the food and drink of the Caraibs; and at present it makes 

 a necessary ingredient in the meager pot of the negroes. The 

 bark is brought to Europe in long quills, which are about 

 three quarters of an inch in diameter, somewhat thicker than 

 cinnamon, and both externally and internally of a whitish or 

 light brown colour, with a yellowish hue, and commonly 

 intermixed with thicker pieces, which are probably obtained 

 from the trunk of the tree. In taste it is moderately warm, 

 aromatic, and bitterish ; its smell is agreeable, and resembles 

 that of cloves : its virtues are extracted most perfectly by 

 proof spirit. The use of canella alba now supersedes that of 

 the old bark of Winter, on the authority of both the London 

 and Edinburgh pharmacopoeias. It has been supposed to pos- 

 sess considerable virtues, and is said to be useful in scorbutic 

 and many other complaints. It is now, however, considered 

 merely in the light of an aromatic, and, like many other spices, 

 is employed for the purpose of correcting disagreeable drugs. 

 This tree is too tender to live in England out of a stove : 

 the plants require to be plunged in the tan-bed, and in winter 

 should be sparingly watered ; in summer they should have it 

 in greater plenty, and they should also have a good share 

 of air admitted to them when the weather is warm ; with this 

 management they maybe preserved very well; but as they are 

 difficult to propagate either by layers or cuttings, the surest 

 method is to procure fresh seeds from the West Indies. 



Canna; a genus of the class Monandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth three-leaved; 

 leaflets lanceolate, erect, small, coloured, permanent. Co- 

 rolla : monopetalous, six-parted ; divisions lanceolate, con- 

 joined at the base, the three outer ones erect, larger than the 

 calix; the three inner ones larger than the outer, two erect, 

 one reflected, and thus constituting the upper lip ; nectary 

 petal -like, two parted, of the length and figure of the petals ; 

 the upper divisions ascending, the inferior revolute, imitating 

 the upper lip of a corolla. Stamina : filamenta none ; an- 



therse linear, growing to the upper margin of the division 

 which bears the nectary. Pistil: germen roundish, rugged, 

 inferior ; style single, ensiform, growing to the anther-bear- 

 ing nectary, lanceolate, of the length and figure of a petal ; 

 stigma linear, growing to the margin of the style. Pericarp : 

 capsule roundish, rugged, crowned, three-grooved, three- 

 celled, three-valved. Seeds : few, globular. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Corolla: six-parted, erect; lip two-parted, 

 revolute. Style : lanceolate, growing to the corolla. Calix: 

 three-leaved. Every species of this genus is propagated by 

 seeds, which should be sown upon a hot-bed in the spring; 

 and when the plants are fit to remove, they should be trans- 

 planted into separate small pots filled with rich kitchen- 

 garden earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed of tan- 

 ners' bark, observing to shade them until they have taken 

 root ; after which they should have a large share of free air 

 admitted to them every day in warm weather, and be fre- 

 quently refreshed with water. As these plants will grow 

 very fast, they must be shifted into larger pots filled with 

 the same sort of earth, and part of them plunged into the 

 hot-bed again ; and the others may be placed abroad in June, 

 with other exotic plants, in a warm situation. Those which 

 are placed in the hot- bed, will be strong enough to flower well 

 in the stove the following winter ; but those in the open air 

 will not flower before the following summer : the latter may 

 remain abroad till the beginning of October, but must then 

 be removed into the stove, and treated in the same manner 

 as the old plants until May, when a gentle hot-bed should 

 be made, covered a foot thick with rich earth, and the plants 

 turned out of the pots, planting them with their balls of 

 earth upon the hot-bed, covering each with a bell-glass, 

 which may be raised on one side every day to admit the air 

 to the plants ; and as they advance, they must be gradually 

 inured to bear the open air. With this management the 

 plants will grow much taller and stronger than those which 

 are kept in pots, and from these good seeds may be expected 

 in autumn. These plants will continue many years ; but 

 as young plants always flower better than the old roots, it 

 is not worth while continuing them after they have borne 



good seeds. The species are, 



1. Canna Indica ; Indian Shot. Leaves ovate, acuminate 

 at both ends, nerved. This plant has a thick fleshy tuberous 

 root, which divides into many irregular knobs, spreading 

 wide near the surface of the ground, sending out many 

 large ovate leaves without any order ; these, at their first 

 appearance, are twisted like a horn, but afterwards expand, 

 and are near five feet long, and five inches broad in the 

 middle, lessening gradually to both ends, and terminating 

 in points ; the stalks are herbaceous, rising four feet high, 

 encompassed by the broad leafy footstalks of the leaves ; 

 the flowers are produced at the upper part of the stalk in 

 loose spikes ; the petal is of a pale red colour. There are 

 several varieties, not worth enumerating; the stalks are 

 sometimes of a pale red, and sometimes of a beautiful scar- 

 let colour, succeeded by a prickly pericarp, with several 

 black seeds, which will kill small birds. The juice of the 

 root is said to be a counter-poison, and to be good, mixed 

 with the bruised leaves and Water Lily, as a cataplasm for 

 hard tumors and indurations of the spleen. Gerarde in- 

 forms us, that in his time it was in the garden at Padua, 

 and that he had planted it in his garden divers times, but it 

 never came to a flowering ; and that it must be set or 

 sown in a pot with fine earth, or a bed made of horse- 

 dung, in the same manner as cucumbers and musk melons 

 are. Parkinson says, that in some kindly years this beau- 

 tiful plant has borne its brave flowers, but never any ripe 



