MARANTA INDICA. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
SECT. I. CANN. 
Guy. Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the filament; style tubular, reflexed; stigma perforate, 
trilobate at the apex; seed single. 
Sruc. Cuar.—Root tuberous, farinaceous; stem perennial ; branches dichotomous; leaves linear-lanceolate, smooth 
on both sides, except a villous line on each side the mid-rib beneath; petioles long, connected 
with the leaf by a dusky ganglion. 
Syx.—Maranta Arundinacea, Cannacori folio. Plum. Gen. 16. 
Maranta Arundinacea. Martyn, Cent. iv. p. 39. 
Maranta Arundinacea. Aublet, v. i. p. 3. 
Maranta Sylvatica. Roscoe, in Trans. Lin. Soc. y. viii. p. 340. 
Maranta Sylvatica. Smith, in Rees’ Cyclop. 
Maranta Indica de Tussac ? Ap. Roemer § Schultes, vol. i. p. 14. No. 2. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root tuberous, long, fusiform, squamose ; stem perennial, cylindrical, smooth, with dichotomous branches ; 
petioles long, terminating at the leaf with a dusky ganglion; leaves a fine green, ovate, or slightly cordate 
at the base, linear-lanceolate, smooth on both sides, except a line of very slight hairs on each side the 
mid-rib below; calyx in three lanceolate leaves, equal; flowers in pairs, large, pure white; corolla with a 
double limb, outer limb in three segments, segments obtuse, intire, equal, inner limb in three segments, two 
upper segments equal, ovate, intire; lower segment or lip broad-ovate, slightly divided into two obtuse lobes; 
filament broad, hooded; anther single, oblong, closely attached, sometimes on the right, and at others on 
the left margin of the filament; style tubular, recurved ; stigma ringent, three-lobed ; capsule ovate, one-seeded ; 
seed perforated. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
We consider this to be the plant said by Martin, to have been discovered by Houston at La Vera Cruz, 
and sent to the Botanic Garden at Chelsea; and also the plant of Plumier, before referred to; whose 
drawing, of which an outline is now before us, represents the leaf as villous on each side the lower mid- 
rib only; by which it is distinguished from the Arundinacea, the leaves of which are downy on both sides. 
It is also of a loftier growth than the Arundinacea, frequently rising to six feet high. 
This species produces also the farinaceous substance called arrow-root, and is said to be cultivated even 
more extensively than the Arundinacea for that purpose, in several of the West India Islands. 
The plant in the Botanic Garden at Liverpool, from which the present figure was drawn, was sent 
by Lord Seaforth from Barbadoes, in 1813. It has also been received there from St. Vincent’s. 
There is also in the Liverpool Garden, a variety of this species with purple stems, and the mid-rib 
of the leaf purple beneath. The squamz of the root are also purple. ‘This variety was sent from Trinidad 
by C. S. Parker, Esq. 
The Maranta Indica is said by Roemer and Schultes to have been brought from the East Indies, 
through England, into Aanericae but it does not appear in the Flora Indica of Dr. Roxburgh, where not a 
single Maranta is enumerated; and is most probably a native of the western hemisphere. 
These observations will sufficiently answer the question proposed by Roemer & Schultes, Syst. Veg. v. i. p. 16. 
REFERENCES. 
1. Intire flower. 
2. Filament and anther. 
3. Style and stigma. 
