CAWHA 



The first distinct fashion seems to have been for tall, late- 

 flowering forms. In 1848, Annee, a 'cultivator in France, sowed 

 seeds of Carina Nepalensis, a tall 'Indian species, and there 

 sprang up a race of plants which have since been known as Canna 

 Annki. It is probable that this Carina Nepalensis had become 

 fertilized with other species growing '^'n Annee's collection, very 

 likely with Canna glauca, from tropical America. At any rate, 

 this race of Cannas became popular and was to its time what the 

 French Dwarfs are to the present day. The plants weifp freely 

 introduced into parks, beginning about 1856, but their usefegan to 

 wane by 1870, or before. Descendants of this type varipuMy 

 crossed and modified are now frequently seen in parks and gar- 

 dens. ,.; 



The beginning of the modem race of dwarf, large-flowered plants 

 was in 1863, when one of the smaller-flowered Costa Rican 

 species, Canna Warscewiczii, was crossed upon a large-flowgred 

 Peruvian species, Canna iridiflbra. The offspring of this union 

 came to be called Canna Ehemdnni. This hybrid has been 

 again variously crossed with other species and modified by culti- 

 vation and selection, until the present composite type is the re- 

 sult. Seeds give new varieties; and any seedling which is' worth 

 saving is thereafter multiplied by division of the root and the re- 

 sulting plants are introduced to commerce. 



Since new forms are so easily obtained, it is not surprising 

 that our great florists so frequently place new varieties upon the 

 market. But the characteristics of the race are well fixed and the 

 plants fall into certain definite groups regardless of high-sound- 

 ing names. In habit they are either standard or dwarf; the foliage 

 is either green or bronze; the flowers are self-colored, spotted, 

 blotched, or edged, all brilliant and all beautiful. 



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