II. CANNACSLSJ. 



759 



Calathea zebrina. Flower. 



Calathea. 

 Young anther (mag.). 



Calathea. 

 Hooded staminode. 



Calathea. 

 Transverse section of fruit. 



a. Septal glands ; 6. Septa 



c. Testa ; d. Raphe ; 

 e. Albumen ; /. Embryo. 



CAPSULE "3-valved. SEED albuminous. EMBRYO straight or hooked. HERBS, LEAVES 

 alternate, sheathing, midrib giving off laterally simple and parallel secondary nerves, 



Perennial HERBS with fibrous roots or fleshy creeping rhizomes. STEM simple, 

 or branched above, enveloped by the sheathing petioles. LEAVES alternate, simple ; 

 petiole sheathing at the base, often thickened at the top ; limb plane, large, entire ; 

 midrib thick, giving off laterally simple parallel oblique or horizontal secondary 

 nerves which are incurved at the tips. FLOWERS $ , irregular, in a raceme or 

 terminal or lateral panicle, bracteate. PERIANTH superior, apparently formed of 

 3-4 irregular petaloid whorls : (1) (CALYX) herbaceous or scarious, 3-phyllous, imbri- 

 cate ; (2) (COROLLA) of 3 imbricate divisions, alternating with the calyx, coloured, 

 tubular at the base, equal or sub-equal ; (3) OUTER STAMINODES petaloid, imbricate, 

 inserted on the corolla and alternate with it, the interior one bilobed or ringent ; (4) 

 INNER STAMINODES petaloid, alternate with the outer, one labelliform, the other 

 antheriferous ; anther 1-celled, introrse, dehiscence longitudinal ; pollen globose, 

 smooth, or tubercled (Canna}. OVARY inferior, 3-celled, or 1-celled by arrest; style 

 sometimes dilated, petaloid, straight or curved ; sometimes slender, free, or adnate 

 below to the corolla-tube and margin of the antheriferous segment ; stigma terminal 

 or sub-lateral, entire, sub-labiate or concave; ovules sometimes solitary, basilar, 

 campylotropous or semi-anatropous, sometimes numerous, 2-seriate at the inner 

 angle of the cells, horizontal and anatropous. CAPSULE 1-celled, sometimes fleshy, 

 or 3-celled and loculicidally 3-valved. SEEDS globose or angular, when immature 

 sometimes furnished with a filamentous aril (Canna} ; testa coriaceous ; endopleura 

 thickened around the micropyle ; albumen horny. EMBRYO of the anatropous seeds 

 straight, or slightly curved at the top ; radicle turned towards the hilum ; embryo of 

 the campylotropous seeds hooked, or bent like a crozier, accompanied by two 

 chalazal canals which cross the albumen. 



Thalia. 

 Canna. 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 



Calathea. 

 Maranta. 



Ichnosiphon. 

 Stromanthe. 



Phrynium. 



A. L. de Jussieu united Cannacece and Zingiberacca in one family, under the name of Balusters. 

 They differ only in the stamen of Zingiberacece belonging to the first whorl of the staminodes, and having 

 a 2-celled anther, and in the double albumen. 



