PHRYNIUM VIOLACEUM. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
cea eee eae re iv 
SECT. I. CANNA, 
Gen. Cuar.—Anther single, attached to the margin of the filament; style tubular, revolute, truncate ; stigma 
simple, circular ; capsule three-celled ; seeds three. 
Spec. Cuar.—Scape bursting from the petiole, erect, jointed ; spike capitate, imbricate; outer bractes circular, 
green, striate, each containing a pair of violate-coloured flowers ; leaves broad-ovate, inzequilateral, 
pointed at the apex, strongly nerved. 
Syw.—Calathea violacea. Bot. Reg. No. 961. (Corr. 962.) 
Calathea violacea. Loddiges, Bot. Cab. 1148. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Root with strong fibres penetrating deep into the earth, and terminating in large pendulous tubers of 
a farinaceous quality, resembling arrow-root ; stem none; petioles rising immediately from the root, from 18 
inches to two feet high, deeply channelled on one side, terminating next the leaf in a pallid ganglion, about 
an inch in length, and slightly pubescent above; leaves ovate, acute at the apex, strongly nerved, smooth 
on both sides, very inaequilateral, dark green above, glaucous below, and purpurescent when young; spike 
bursting from the middle of the petiole, capitate, ovate, imbricate; outer bractes foliaceous, broad-ovate, 
green, slightly marcescent towards the apex; interior opposite bracte quadriform, winged, membranaceous, with 
several smaller, interior, imbricate, glumaceous, diaphanous bractes; tube of the corolla slender, about an inch 
in length, expanding in a double limb; outer limb in three sections, equal, ovate, violet colour; inner limb 
bilabiate ; upper lip in two sections, one of them hooded, irregular, with a projecting appendage or hornlet 
a little below the apex, membranaceous, diaphanous; the other lanceolate, acute, violet colour; lower lip 
broad-ovate, slightly bifid at the apex, deep violet; anther ovate, attached by a short subulate filament to 
the hooded section of the upper lip of the inner limb of the corolla; style tubular, revolute, connate with 
the upper lip; the relative position of the anther and style seem to vary according to the state of the 
flower, before, during, or after, impregnation ; stigma a circular orifice, depressed ; germen three-celled ; three 
seeds. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
This plant in its habit, size, and general appearance, bears a nearer resemblance to the P. capitatum 
of the East Indies, (Roxb. in Asiat. Res. vol. xi. p. 325. Flor. Ind. v. i. p. 9.) than to any other species yet 
discovered in the western world. It was imported from Rio Janeiro in 1825, by the late Mr. W. Ross, 
of Stoke Newington, and has already been published in the two respectable works before referred to, under 
the name of Calathea; a genus which we cannot admit, without excluding the prior established one of 
Phrynium, altogether. 
The plant from which our drawing was taken, was obligingly communicated by Messrs. Loddiges, to the 
Botanic Garden at Liverpool. There is reason to believe that the large tubers attached to the roots, are of 
a nutricious quality, and might be obtained in great abundance; those here represented having been produced 
in a very small pot. 
