CANNA GLAUCA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANN#. 
Grn, Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the petal-like filament; style erect, club-shaped ; stigma 
an obtuse terminal scale; capsule three-celled; seeds numerous. 
Spec. Cuar.—Spike erect ; upper lip of interior limb of corolla in three segments ; segments ovate, equal, 
intire ; lower lip long, linear, notched at the apex, revolute; leaves lanceolate, long, glaucous. 
Syy.—Canna glauca. Linn. Sp. Pl. 1. 
Canna glauca. Sir J. E. Smith, Exot. Bot. vol. ii. tab. 102. 
Canna glauca. Hegetschweiler, Comment. Bot. tab. ii. fig. 9. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root perennial, fibrous, creeping; stem erect, six feet high ; leaves long-lanceolate, ineequilateral, strongly 
veined, glaucous, decurrent and sheathing the stem; spike terminal, generally with three or more flowers 
bursting from a long sheathing bracte, and closely sitting on a triangular rachis; each flower supported at 
the base by a proper, wedge-shaped, floral bracte, light brown, deciduous; calyx of three lanceolate leaves, 
of a glaucous green, permanent; corolla with a double limb; outer limb in three lanceolate-acute segments ; 
inner limb with a double lip; upper lip in three segments, equal, broad-ovate, intire; lower lip long, linear, 
revolute, bifid at the apex; filament lanceolate, revelute, bearing on the margin near the apex a long, slender 
anther; style erect, linear-lanceolate ; stigma obtuse; the whole flower of a uniform, fine, pale yellow, or 
sulphur-colour ; capsule large, verrucose, ovate, three-celled, with numerous hard, globular seeds. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This plant is probably a native of Africa, from whence Linneus informs us he received the seeds of 
it. That it is the same plant as described by him under the name of Canna glauca, appears from the specimens 
and description in his Herbarium, v. Sir J. E. Smith, Exot. Bot. vol. ii. p- 83. Willdenow confounded it with 
the C. flaccida, a very different plant, and referred it to the figure in Dill. Hort. Elth. t. 59, £. 69. v. Willd. 
Syst. v. i. p. 4. Enum. Berol. i. 3. into which mistake he was probably led by the Hort. Kew. 1st edition, p. 2. 
where it is stated to have been cultivated by Sherard, in 1732; an assertion which must be understood of 
the C. flaccida. 
The figure of Hegetschweiler differs considerably from both the specimen in Ewot. Bot. and that here 
given; particularly in one of the upper segments of the interior limb of the corolla being deeply emarginate. 
It is not however improbable, that variations of this nature may occasionally occur, as well in this tribe 
of plants as others. Fortunately, however, the present species is so strongly characterized in other respects, 
that it is impossible it should be mistaken for any other of the genus. It is best cultivated by placing the 
roots in water, where it is a great ornament to the aquarium. 
We must not omit to notice, that we have received specimens of the flowers and fruit in spirits, from 
the tropical parts of America, and that our drawing of the capsule is from one of foreign growth. 
REFERENCES. 
- Floral bracte. 
. Germeni and calyx. 
. Sections of outer limb of corolla. 
Segments of upper lip of inner limb of corolla. 
. Filament, anther, style and stigma. 
Capsule. 
A Aa Fw wo 
. Ditto opened. 
