168 



MARANTACEjE. 



[Endogens. 



Order L. MARANTACE^l.— Marants. 



Cannae, Juss. Gen. 62. (1789) in 

 Brown in Flinders, (1 



p^.-Cannae, R. Broun, Prodr. 1. 307. ?*™^™^™ M ™»£F*' 



sect. o/Scitaniinea;; Endl. Gen.lxix ; Lestiboudois in Ann 



Diagnosis.— A momal Endogens, with one stamen, half an anther, and no t -It, II us. 

 Herbaceous tropical plants, destitute of aroma. 



Rhizome often tuberous, and abounding 



lyx superior, of 3 sepals, short. Corolla tubular, irregular, with the segment, m 2 



the outer 3-parted, nearly equal : 



the inner very irregular ; one 



of the lateral segments usually 



coloured, and formed differently 



from the rest ; sometimes by 



abortion fewer than 3. Stamens 



3, petaloid, distinct, of which 



one of the laterals and the in- 

 termediate one are either barren 



or abortive, and the other late- 

 ral one fertile. Filament peta- 

 loid, either entire or 2-lobed, one 



of the lobes bearing the anther 



on its edge. Anther 1-celled, 



opening longitudinally. Pollen 



round (papillose in Canna coc- 



cinea, smooth in Calathea zeb- 



rina.) Ovary 1-3-celled ; ovules 

 solitary, erect, and campylotro- 

 pal, or numerous, anatropal, and 

 attached to the axis of each 

 cell ; style petaloid or swollen ; 

 stigma either the mere denuded 

 apex of the style, or hollow, cu- 

 cullate, and incurved. Fruit 

 capsular, as in Gingerworts. 

 Seeds round, without aril ; albu- 

 men hard, somewhat floury ; 

 embryo straight, naked, its 

 radicle, lying against the hilum. 



Under Gingerworts, the relations of that Order and the present to 

 other monocotyledonous groups bas been noticed. In this place the 

 distinction between the two Orders has to be explained. In true 

 Gingers, as Brown has observed (Prodr. 305.), the stamen is always 

 placed opposite the labcllum or anterior division of the inner series 

 of the corolla, and proceeds from the base of the posterior outer 

 division ; while the sterile stamens, when they exist, are stationed 

 right and left of the labellum. But in Marants the fertile stamen is 

 on one side of the labellum, occupying the place of one of the lateral 

 sterile stamens of Gingerworts. This peculiarity of arrangement indi- 

 cates a higher degree of irregularity in Marants than in Gingers, which 

 also extends to the other parts of the flower. The suppression of 

 organs takes place in the latter in a symmetrical manner ; the two 

 posterior divisions of the inner series of the perianth, which are 

 occasionally absent, corresponding with the abortion of the two ante- 

 rior stamens. In Marants, on the contrary, the suppression of organs 5 

 takes place with so much irregularity, that the relation which the 

 various parts bear to each other is not always apparent : instead of the 

 central stamen being perfect while the two lateral ones are abortive, 

 as in Gingerworts and most Orchids, or of the central stamen being 

 abortive and the two lateral ones perfect, as in some Orchids, it is 

 the central and one lateral one that are suppressed in Marants. In 



Fig. CXV. 



Pig. CXV. — Calathea villosa ; 1. a flower cut open ; 2. a transverse section of the ovary ; 3. a per- 

 pendicular section of it ; 4. a section of the seed of Canna 5. a section of its embryo. 



