266 



N. Ord. CANNACE^E. 



Genus Canna,* Linn. Bouche, in Linnsea, xviii, p. 483. Species 

 about 60 or more, natives chiefly of the tropical and warmer 

 parts of America. 



266. Canna edulis, Ker, in Bot. Register, ix, t. 775 (1823). 

 Achira (Peru). Meeru (Brazil). 



Syn. C. indica, Ruiz & Pav. (non Linn.). C. discolor, Lindl. 1 



Figures. Bot. Beg., t. 775 and ? 1231; Bot. Mag., t. 2498; Roscoe, 

 Scitaminese, 5th plate. 



Description. An herbaceous perennial with a large, creeping, 

 fleshy, branched, definite rhizome, with thick, nodular, tuberiform 

 joints, ringed with the brown fibrous remains of the leaves of 

 previous years. Roots long, cylindrical, rather thick, unbranched, 

 fibrous. Flowering stems terminal, erect, 8 feet high, somewhat 

 compressed, smooth, solid, green, triangular in the upper part. 

 Leaves very large, alternate, lower ones on long stalks, upper ones 

 sheathing, broadly oval- or ovate-oblong, attenuate at both ends, 

 smooth, bluish-green, with a broad strong midrib, and numerous, 

 curved, parallel, prominent, secondary nerves. Flowers few, in 

 pairs, nearly sessile, erect, arranged in a rather close, short, race- 

 mose inflorescence at the end of the stem ; a single bract below 

 each pair of flowers, ovate, blunt, membranous and crumpled, 

 purplish-pink, persistent, and two small opposite ones below the 

 ovary of one of the flowers. Sepals 3, superior, slightly unequal, 

 ovate, blunt, imbricate, greenish. Petals 3, superior, alternate with 

 the sepals, and three times as long as them, erect, lanceolate, con- 

 cave, very acute, red. Andrcecium of 5 superior petaloid staminodes 

 exceeding the true petals, and appearing to constitute the corolla, 

 imbricated in (irregularly) 2 rows, unequal, bright scarlet, yellowish 

 below; the 3 outer at the back of the flower, erect, the longest 

 nearly 3 inches long, all oblong- spathulate, blunt, entire ; the 2 

 inner dissimilar, one curved over the front of the flower, forming 

 a sort of lip, and internally constituting the floor of the flower, 



* Canna, Greek KO.WO., a reed or cane. 



