SCITAMINACE^-BANANA FAMILY 



CANNA. INDIAN SHOT 



Cdnna hybrida. 



Name of Oriental origin and of no application, so far as known. 



A stout, unbranched, large-leaved, tropical plant, with brilliant 

 ornamental flowers and showy fohage. Of garden origin. 



Stem. — Erect, simple, three to five feet high. 

 Leaves. — Large, oblong, acute. 



Flowers. — Extremely irregular, large, brilliant red, yellow, or parti- 

 colored, borne in a terminal raceme or panicle. 



Calyx. — Of three oblong, pointed sepals, normally green, but in 

 the highly bred varieties taking on the color of the corolla. 



Corolla. — Of three narrow, pointed petals more or less rolled into 

 a tube. 



Stamens. — Represented by the apparent petals, five; two or three of 

 which are much lengthened and broadened; another is narrowed and 

 deflexed and forms the lip of the flower, and one, more or less coiled or 

 rolled upon itself, bears the solitary one-celled anther, clinging rather 

 precariously at one edge. 



Ovary. — At the very base, small, green, covered with minute tuber- 

 cles, three-celled, containing many ovules. Style is long, flattened, 

 color of flower; the stigmatic surface extending about a quarter of an 

 inch. 



Capsule. — Large, three-celled, many-seeded. 



Cannas are favorites largely because they give such generous 

 return for the care expended upon them. The higher kinds quickly 

 make a leafy hedge, the lower will give a brilliant bed of color, 

 and both will do the thing expected of them in a comparatively 

 brief period. People ordinarily depend upon the nearest florist 

 for their Cannas, and these come to hand well started in little pots; 

 but the roots can be kept over winter as easily as those of the 



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