Marantacea. 469 
C. édulis, from South America, is a taller species, 5 to 6 feet, 
high, with reddish stems and orange-scarlet flowers ; C. coccinea, 
from the same country, has scarlet flowers with the labellum 
spotted; C. angustifolia or speciosa, from Brazil, has narrower 
leaves than any of the preceding, and yellow and red flowers ; 
C. Warscewiczii, from New Grenada, has dark-coloured stems 
and purple-bordered foliage. There are many other species and 
varieties in cultivation, and the number is increasing every 
year, so that the latest information can only be gleaned from 
the florists’ catalogues. 
Thalia dealbata (fig. 228) isa hardy North American plant 
belonging to this family. It is an elegant herbaceous aquatic 
from 2 to 4 feet high with fine glaucous foliage and handsome 
panicles of purple flowers. It should be planted in a good 
depth of water to enable it to resist the effects of our Winters. 
The exclusively American order, Bromeliacee, belongs to 
the group of Endogens, with an inferior seed vessel; but only 
the three inner perianth-segments are petaloid. Piya Chilén- 
sis, syn., Pourréetia coarctata, a half hardy shrub, is one of the 
largest species. It has a branching stem of three to four 
feet high, crowned with rosettes of tough linear leaves, from the 
centre of which spring the large spicate panicles, six to eight 
feet high, of yellow flowers. 
Orpver IX.—IRIDACE:. 
Perennial often tuberous-rooted herbs with usually glabrous 
equitant distichous leaves and terminal bracteate spikes, umbels, 
corymbs or panicles of showy flowers. Perianth superior, com- 
posed of six divisions in two series, equal or unequal, the inner 
sometimes smallest. Stamens 3. Stigmas often petaloid. 
Fruit an inferior 3-celled many-seeded capsule dehiscing 
loculicidally. Seeds spheroid, angular or winged, albuminous. 
This order comprises about 50 genera and 500 species, dis- 
persed throughout the temperate regions of the whole world. 
The British species are few and rare, with the exception of Iris 
Pscuddacorus, the Yellow Flag. 
1. SISYRINCHIUM. 
Tuberous or thick fibrous-rooted plants with grass -like 
radical equitant leaves. Flower-seape usually flattened and 
two-edged. Flowers umbellate or solitary. Perianth regular, 
