CANNA EDULIS. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANN. 
Guy. Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the petal-like filament; style erect, club-shaped ; stigma 
an obtuse scale; capsule three-celled; seeds numerous. 
Src. Cuar.—Spike erect; upper limb of corolla in three segments; segments lanceolate, intire, nearly equal, 
erect, converging; lower lip narrow, linear, bifid at the apex, declined ; pedicels winged; leaves 
broad-lanceolate, acute, subzequilateral. 
Syy.—Meeru, sive Canna Indica. Piso. Hist. Nat. Brazil, p- 116. Maregr. Ibid. p. 4. 
Canna Indica. Ruiz § Pavon, Flor. Peruv. i. 1. Bot. Reg. 775. 
Canna edulis. Tuberous rooted Indian reed. Bot. Mag. 2498. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Roots large, tuberous, with many germinating eyes or buds, perennial; stems erect, round, jointed, from 8 to 
12 feet high, purpurescent, with a slight scattered down or hair; leaves very large, broad-lanceolate-acute, 
strongly nerved; lower leaves on long petioles, upper ones sheathing the stem ; petioles winged, decurrent, deeply 
channelled, downy; general bracte lanceolate, acute, green, with a purple margin; floral bracte common to two 
flowers, broad-ovate, dull red, with a pallid membranous crenate margin, deciduous; one of the two pedicels 
winged immediately below the germen, with two unequal petal-like coloured processes ; calyx of three leaves, 
erect, acute, equal, deep crimson; outer limb of the corolla in three segments, lanceolate, dark crimson; inner 
limb with a double lip, upper lip in three segments, two of them rather larger, lanceolate, intire, with long 
yellow claws, one of the sections frequently declined; lower lip rather less than the upper segments, linear, 
bifid at the apex, deflexed; filament smaller than the segments of the corolla; style erect, linear, pallid; stigma 
a scale; germen angular, rugose, with three cells; seeds numerous. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
From the duplicate figures and descriptions given by Piso and Marcgrave, of the Mceru of Brazil, and 
particularly from the large tuberous esculent roots, we have little doubt that this ‘is the same species as that 
figured and described by them, and for a still earlier account of which, they have referred to Clusius, 
lib. 4. cap. 54. 
That it is also the Canna Indica of the Flora Peruviana, 
we are assured by the Editor of Bot. Reg. No. 775, 
who has also corrected an error in the last mentioned work, No. 470, where the Peruvian plant is referred to Canna 
Lamberti. We have obseryed some diversities between the plant here published, and that figured in Bot. Reg. 
and particularly that the segments of the inner limb of the corolla are there represented as slightly emarginate, 
whilst in ours, drawn from a fine fresh specimen, those segments were acute and intire, as is also the case 
with the figure in Bot. Mag. No. 2498. On the other hand, we find in the last mentioned figure, the lower lip 
or labellum represented as intire and acute, whilst in that in Bot. Reg. it is emarginate or notched, as was the 
case also in our specimen. Some other slight variations may also appear on comparison of the figures now 
published; but upon the whole, there can be no doubt of the identity of the species, which was raised by 
Mr. Lambert, from seeds collected by the authors of the Flora Peruviana, nearly thirty years before they 
were committed to the ground. The two small petaliform coloured appendages on the pedicels, a little below 
the germen, are not found, as far as our observations extend, in any other plant of the genus, and alone 
‘sufficiently distinguish the species. 
