CANNA PATENS. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANN. 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the filament; style erect, club-shaped, intire; stigma a 
terminal obtuse scale; capsule three-celled; seeds numerous. 
Spec. Cuar.—Corolla monopetala, upper lip of the interior limb of the corolla in three sections, equal, ovate, 
intire, expanding ; lower lip linear, revolute, bifid, spotted ; leaves lanceolate ; capsule ovate, rugose. 
Syy.—Canna Indica, var. Patens (§ ) Aiton, Hort. Kew. Ed. 1. 
Canna Patens. Aiton, Hort. Kew. vol. i. p. 1. Ed. 2. 
Canna Indica. Curt. Bot. Mag. vol. xiii. No. 454. 
Canna Patens. Bot. Reg. vol. vii. No. 576. 
Canna Patens. Roemer § Schultes, No. 5. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root tuberous; stem from four to five feet high, jointed; leaves lanceolate, subequilateral ; petiole short, 
winged, sheathing the stem; spike loose, many-flowered, rising from a general bracte or sheath; proper bracte 
short, cuneate, membranous, deciduous ; calyx of three short, equal, lanceolate segments, pale green ; exterior limb 
of the corolla in three segments, equal, lanceolate, yellow, terminating in green; upper lip of the interior limb 
in three segments, intire, ovate, spreading, deep red; lip linear, revolute, emarginate, or slightly notched, yellow, 
with oblong red spots; filament shorter than the other sections of the corolla, slightly revolute, spotted; anther 
attached to the margin of the filament, near the apex; style erect, club-shaped, stigma a terminal scale; capsule 
three-celled, large, oblong, rugose ; seeds numerous, black when ripe. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This plant, first introduced to notice in the first edition of the Hort. Kewensis, as a variety of the Canna 
Indica, has been ascertained, by the growth of many years in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, to be a distinct 
species, maintaining its peculiar character amidst the great diversity of other plants of the same genus, by which 
it is there surrounded. 
The character given in the Hort. Kewensis, “ Corolle limbo interiore trifido, laciniis reflexis,” seems to have 
induced Willdenow, in his Enumeratio, vol. i. p. 2. to refer to this plant as his C. chinensis, from which it is entirely 
distinct; as in that plant it is not the segments of the interior, but of the exterior limb that are reflected. 
“ Corolle laciniis exterioribus demum reflexis,” whence it appears, that the C. chinensis of Willdenow is the C. Indica 
of Roxb. Flora Indica, vol. i. p. 1. figured in the present work as C. orientalis, the true C. indica being undoubtedly 
an American plant. 
Seeds of the Canna Patens have been received from the Island of St. Helena, where it is probably indigenous. 
REFERENCES. 
. Germen and calyx. 
. Exterior limb of corolla. 
Lip. 
. Filament, anther, style and stigma. 
eS co Me 
. The three segments of interior limb. 
DD 
. Seed-vessels. 
= 
. Unripe seeds. 
