CANNA LATIFOLIA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANN. 
Gen. Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the petal-like filament ; style club-shaped ; stigma an obtuse 
scale ; capsule three-celled; seeds numerous. 
Spec. Cuar.—Upper lip of the interior limb of the corolla in three sections, intire, acute, irregularly spreading ; 
lower lip spatulate, slightly lobed ; style petal-like; leaves broad, ovate ; stem woolly. 
Syy.—Canna gigantea. Woolly-stemmed Indian shot. Bot. Reg. t. 206. 
Canna gigantea. Redoute Liliac. 331. 
Canna gigantea. Bot. Mag. 2316. 
Canna gigantea. Roemer & Schultes, Sys. Veg. vol. i. p. 12. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root tuberous; stem from 10 to 15 feet high, woolly, frequently two inches in diameter at the base; leaves 
alternate, broad-ovate ; lobes equilateral, strongly ribbed, from three to four fect long by one foot broad; petioles 
and sheathing covered with a dense down or nap; common bracte large, coriaceous ; proper bracte membranous, 
deciduous; spike many-flowered; calyx in three lanceolate segments; outer limb of the corolla in three long, 
lanceolate, erect segments, yellow terminated with deep red; interior limb long, tubular, extending beyond and 
diverging obliquely from the exterior limb; segments linear-lanceolate, irregularly spreading, frequently lobate, or 
slightly mucronate at the apex, deep red; lower lip nearly resembling the upper sections, linear-lanceolate, slightly 
declined, emarginate or lobed at the apex, deep red; filament petal-like, revolute ; anther grooved, attached to the 
margin ; style coloured like one of the sections of the corolla, all of which are of a bright uniform red; stigma an 
obscure scale ; capsule large, rugose, three-valved ; seeds many, globose, black. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This magnificent species of Canna was first received at the Botanic Garden in Liverpool, in 1810, from the 
Duke of Northumberland’s, at Sion House, under the name of Canna latifolia. On its first flowering there, it was 
erroneously supposed to be the patens of the Hort. Kewensis, Ed. 1, and was so stated by me, in Trans. Lin. Soc. 
vol. xi. p. 272, a mistake which I have since been afforded an opportunity of correcting in the Bot. Register, vol. ix. 
v. Note, in fine, where the specific appellation as first adopted is restored, and a correct character may be found. In 
fact, no species in the whole genus is more strongly characterized than the present. Such is the close resemblance 
of the different parts of the interior limb of the corolla, including the filament and style, to each other, as well in 
form as colour, that by an incurious observer they might be mistaken for an hexapetalous flower; whilst the 
irregularly diverging form of their growth displays a wild elegance wholly unlike any other species. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Entire flower. 
2. Capsule. 
3. Ditto opened. 
4. Seeds. 
