BAJHASA FAMILY ' 



dahlia, And a plantation once established need not be lost. If one 

 wi^hes|o make experiments, it is necessary only to sow the seeds, 

 and the seedlings may be Wonders. 



The blossom is marvellously irregular. We are accustomed to 

 double flowers like the rose and the water-lily. We know that 



now and then in a flower the 

 corolla disappears and the 

 calyx comes forth, brave in 

 seeming and lovely of color, 

 as in the larkspurs; but we 

 are not quite prepared to 

 have the filaments of the 

 stamens broaden into appar- 

 ent petals and produce the 

 beauty and the glory of the 

 flower, and yet this is pre- 

 cisely what the Canna does. 

 The history of the garden 

 race is well known and few 

 flowers have shown more re- 

 markable development in 

 recent years. At the present 

 time- the Crozy Cannas, so named from Crozy, of Lyons, 

 France, who introduced the greater number of them, are most 

 popular. This type is often called the French Dwarf, or the 

 Flowering Canna, and is marked by a comparatively low stat- 

 ure and very large and showy flowers in many colors; whereas 

 the Cannas of a few years ago were very tall plants, with small, 

 late, dull-red, narrow flowers, and were grown exclusively for 

 their foliage effects. How has this transformation come about? 

 In the first place, it should be said that there are many species, 

 and about half a dozen of these were well known to gardeners 

 by 1800. About 1830 they began to attract much attention 

 from cultivators, and the original species were soon variously 

 hybridized. Crossed seeds and seeds from the successive gen- 

 erations of hybrids introduced a host of new and variable forms. 



98 



Canna, Cdwna h^brida 



aaab, petal-like bodies representing the stamens, 

 cajied staminodia ; b, is the staminodia that 

 forms the lip of the flower ; /, is the anther 

 clinglnte to the side of the fifth staminodia; 

 e, is ap style ; c cc, the petals ; s, the calyx. 



