CANNA IRIDIFLORA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANNE. 
Gey. Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the filament; style erect, spatulate, or club-shaped ; 
stigma an obtuse scale; capsule three-celled ; seeds numerous. 
Spec. Cuar.—Spike terminal, pendulous; leaves broad-lanceolate, downy below; flowers long, tubular; upper lip 
in three sections, ovate, undulate, crenate ; lower lip bilobate, revolute; style spatulate, gibbous ; 
capsule large, oblong, sub-trigonous, rugose; seeds large, ovate, black. 
Syy.—Canna iridiflora, Ruiz § Pavon. Flora Peru. y. i. fig. 1. ap. Roemer § Schultes, No. 7. Bot. Reg. 609. 
Loddiges’ Bot. Cab. No. 905. Bot. Mag. No. 1968. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root fibrous; stems many from the same root, about ten feet high, erect, compressed; leaves deeply 
channelled, with numerous parallel veins from the middle rib to the margin, bright green, smooth, but not shining 
above, the lower surface and the sheath having a slight yellow tomentum, edges membranous; upper leaf ovate, 
acuminate, stem clasping ; spikes numerous, from the top of the stem, nodding; rachis triangular; pedicels about 
the length of the germen, solitary; outer bracte very long, erect, acute, one at the base of each spike, which 
unsheaths before evolution, persisting ; inner bracte a small ovate, persisting scale and lateral filament at the base 
of each pedicel; calyx three-phyllous, ovate-lanceolate, acute, coloured, persisting ; corolla about six inches long, 
bright, rose-coloured, lighter and mottled on the outside of the tube; outer limb straight, nearly as long as the 
filament when revolute, of a deeper and more purple colour than the inner limb, three-cleft, segments lanceolate, 
acuminate, involute, converging; inner limb three-cleft, segments obovate, spreading, crenate, undulate, connected 
to each other and to the outer limb at unequal heights; lip reflected, resembling one of the segments of the inner 
limb of the corolla ; filament petaloid, revolute, of bright rose-colour, as well as the lip spotted with yellow near the 
base ; anther adhering only at the base, slender, equal in length to the revolute portion of the filament when this 
is stretched out; style spatulate, gibbous on one edge, yellow spotted with rose-colour ; stigma terminal, and 
extending along the gibbous edge of the style till this becomes narrower ; capsule three-sided, slightly falcate, 
densely covered with acuminate warts, which are at first green, afterwards yellow, and, acquiring a dark brown 
colour, fall off as the seeds ripen, leaving the capsule thin and membranous, with strong longitudinal nerves, 
intersected at right angles with more slender veins; seeds oblong, large, nearly black, very numerous, attached 
obliquely among yellow tomentum to the columella in one line, but pushing each other aside so as to give the 
appearance of two or three rows in each loculament. 
OBSERVATIONS. - 
This, by far the most splendid Canna known, has produced a succession of flowers in the Botanic Garden at 
Edinburgh, during the whole months of February and March, and has ripened abundance of seed. It was planted 
in rich light loam, grew as readily as any of the species, and might ‘probably even exceed ten feet high, if encouraged 
by abundance of pot room. It requires a very great degree of heat to perfect its flowering.—R. G. 
For the fine drawing of this beautiful plant, which, although in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, has not yet 
flowered there, I am indebted to the accurate pencil of Dr. R. K. Greville, of Edinburgh, author of the “ Flora 
