542 FLOWERS OF GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE 
broad-oval. Flowers in drooping panicles, large, rosy, with a yellow 
spot on the recurved petal. Introduced from Peru, 1816. 
C. WarscEwiczit (Warscewiez’s). Stem 3 feet high, claret-purple. 
Leaves oval-elliptic, tinged with dark purple. Flowers: inner segments 
scarlet, outer purplish. 
As already indicated, the hybrids, of which any good 
firm of nurserymen will furnish a long list, will be found 
more brilliant and varied for the flower-garden; or seeds of the finer 
species may be obtained. These should be sown in March in light soil, 
in heat, and kept moist. They germinate in about a month, after which 
the plantlets grow rapidly if encouraged by liberal treatment and a stove 
temperature. If the weather is warm at the beginning of June, they 
may be planted-out in a sheltered bed or border, where the soil has been 
previously made very rich for their reception. Or they may be trans- 
ferred to large pots—8 to 12 inches—of rich soil, and used for conservatory 
or dwelling-room decoration, taking care that they have frequent doses 
of manure-water. Seeds are rarely used except in botanical collec- 
tions, as the improved varieties can only be multiplied by division. The 
plants grown in the open should be lifted in October and placed ina 
dry shed, or under a greenhouse stage out of the reach of frost: in fact, 
treating them as if they were Dahlias. In the following spring pro- 
pagation may be effected by cutting the thick rootstock into as 
many portions as there are buds, and planting these separately in 
3-inch pots. The best potting compost for Cannas consists of equal 
portions of well-rotted manure, loam, and sand, to which a little peat is 
then added. 
Description of Indian Shot; flowers of some hybrid forms, one-half 
Plate 248. the natural size. Fig. 1 is the fruit. 
Cultivation. 
KARATAS 
Natural Order Bromeniacex. Genus Karatas 
KaRATAS (name unexplained; probably the native name). A genus 
of about forty species, including Nidulariwm, of perennial stove herbs, 
stemless, with long spiny-toothed leaves, forming a rosette, within which 
the flowers are borne in a dense stalkless head. The individual flower 
is invested by an overlapping bract, and consists of a persistent three- 
parted calyx and a tubular three-parted corolla. There are six stamens 
inserted in the mouth of the corolla, and a long slender style. The fruit is 
