ALPINIA. 



Corowatti in British Guayana is spoken of by Dr. Hancock 

 (Med. gaz. xix. 718), as a bitterish pungent subacrid plant, acting 

 as a diaphoretic and diuretic, or in large doses as an emetic, and 

 of great value in dropsies, rheumatism, dysentery, hooping-cough, 

 &c. The bruised rhizoma is the part used. 



MARANTACE.E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 324-. 



MARANTA. 



Corolla unequal, one of the inner segments in the form of a lip. 

 Stamens petaloid, 1 with half an anther on its edge. Style hood- 

 ed, adhering to the edge of a sterile filament. Ovary 3-celled, 

 smooth; ovules solitary. Fruit even, dry, 1 -seeded. Caule- 

 scent plants with fleshy rhizomata or tubers. Stems branched, 

 often dichotomous. Inflorescence terminal, panicled, jointed, 

 with glumaceous deciduous bracts. 



1204-. M. arundinacea Linn, sp, pi. 2. Redout. Liliac. t. 57. 

 N. and E. handb. i. 235. pi. med. tt. 69, 70. Fee cours. i. 359. 



M. indica Tussac journ. bot. iii. 41. N. and E. handb. i. 236. 



West Indies ; introduced to Jamaica from Barbadoes. 



Root perennial, fibrous, producing numerous fusiform fleshy scaly 

 pendulous tubers from its crown. Stem 2-3 feet high, much branched, 

 slender, finely hairy, tumid at the joints. Leaves alternate, with long 

 leafy hairy sheaths, ovate, lanceolate, slightly hairy underneath, pale 

 green on both sides. Panicles terminal, lax, spreading, with long linear 

 sheathing bracts at the ramifications. Ovary hairy. Calyx green, 

 smooth. Corolla white, small. Fruit nearly globular, with 3 obsolete 

 angles, the size of a small currant. The tubers yield the Arrow root 

 of commerce, one of the lightest and most nutritious of vegetable 

 aliments. It was reckoned a powerful alexipharmic, and derives its 

 English name from its' reputed property of counteracting the effects of 

 poisoned arrows. 



CANNA. 



Corolla unequal, variable in the number of its parts, scarcely 

 lip-shaped in any segment. Stamens petaloid, 1 with half an 

 anther on the edge. Style straight flat, nearly free. Ovary 

 3-celled, many-seeded, granular. Fruit membranous, 3-valved, 

 with a deciduous granular surface. Rhizomas creeping, tube- 

 rous or wanting. Stems erect, with distant sheathing leaves. 

 Inflorescence terminal spiked or racemose. Flowers invested 

 with glumaceous bracts. 



569 



