MARANTA. 
In every arrangement, whether natural or artificial, (if there be any well-founded distinction between them) 
Maranta must be placed between Canna and Phrynium; both of which it resembles, in the anther being 
attached to the margin of the petal-like filament; but varies from the former in the different construction 
of its style and stigma, and from the latter in its mode of inflorescence, which in Maranta is herbaceous 
and simple, in Phrynium rigid and glumaceous, with bractes of a construction peculiar to the genus. These 
distinctions are confirmed by the fruit, which in Canna is a rugose, three-celled capsule, with many globular 
smooth seeds ; in Maranta, an ovate, smooth, rather oblique capsule, opening in three valves, and containing only 
a single, ovate, perforated seed; and in Phrynium, a regular capsule of three cells, and three oblong, angular, 
perforated seeds; diversities which, combined with other distinctions, mark the boundaries of these genera 
beyond the possibility of a doubt. 
The result of our inquiries is, that of eighteen species of Maranta enumerated by Roemer & Schultes, in 
their edition of the Systema Vegetabilium, 1817, (No. 16 and 17 being repeated) not more than three or four 
can be admitted to belong to the genus, the remainder of them mostly appertaining to the proximate genus 
of Phrynium. In the still more recent edition of the same work, by Professor Sprengel, (Gott. 1825) the 
species are reduced into much less compass, some of them being transferred to the newly-proposed genus of 
Calathea, (included by us in that of Phrynium) and others omitted; so that the whole number enumerated 
as Maranta, amounts to ten only. Of these the lutea of Willdenow, the Allouya of Jacquin, the obliqua and 
gracilis of Rudge, and the Zebrina of Sims, must be transferred to Phrynium; the Sylvatica is the same as 
the Indica, leaving only four plants, Arundinacea, Indica, Tonchat, and Gibba, belonging to the genus; to which, 
however, some additions have been made, by new species, first published in the present work. 
These plants appear to be all natives of the Continent and Islands of America, not a single species 
being enumerated in the Flora Indica of Dr. Roxburgh. They agree in being of perennial growth, in rising 
from a fibrous root, frequently producing large tubers of a farinaceous quality. In ascertaining the species, 
we find them either shrubby or herbaceous, flowering either terminally or from a radical scape. The stems 
are either erect and simple, or branching and diffuse, frequently growing in pairs, in dichotomous directions, 
and are either villous or smooth; the leaves are either ovate, lanceolate-acute, or linear; either equally or 
unequally divided by the mid-rib; green, glaucous, or variegated, mucronate, cuspidate, or otherwise characterized. 
These peculiarities, if carefully attended to, will, we believe, be found sufficient to discriminate all the species; 
which is the more fortunate, as the calyx, corolla, and parts of fructification, although characteristic of the genus, 
resemble each other so nearly in the species, both in form and colour, as to afford but little assistance in 
that respect. 
In an economical view this genus is of considerable importance, comprising those plants which furnish 
the inhabitants of the western tropics with the excellent food called arrow-root—a kind of value which must 
compensate for their want of ornament, being the most simple and unostentatious plants of the whole tribe. 
I 
