ISO JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



petaloid staminodia which are developed, and the length to which 

 their claws are united. In the typical Cannas, the petals and 

 staminodia are joined only for a short distance above the base. 

 The staminodia are oblong-spathulate or oblanceolate-spathulate, 

 and either two or three of those of the outer row are developed, 

 protruding far beyond the petals, and spreading in the expanded 

 flower. In the section Distemon the tube is short, and all the 

 staminodia of the outer row are suppressed. In the section 

 Eurystylus there is a comparatively long tube, three large 

 oblong outer staminodia, and an orbicular labellum. In the 

 sub-genus Achiridia there is a very long tube, and the large 

 pendulous flowers have the three obovate-unguiculate staminodia 

 of the outer row fully developed. 



As I have recently described all the species in full detail in 

 the Gardeners' Chronicle (1893, vol. i., pp. 42, 70, 164, and 196), 

 I will on the present occasion only give a general summary. 

 All the true Cannas are so closely allied to one another that it is 

 very difficult to judge how many of the forms should be treated 

 as species, and the differential characters are so slight that they 

 are almost lost in herbarium specimens. Some of the forms 

 have only two outer staminodia, and some have three ; but I do 

 not think that this really constitutes a specific difference, as it is 

 clearly variable both in C. spcciosa and C. Warcewiczii. In the 

 "Index Kewensis " there are given under the genus Canna 

 nearly a hundred specific names, and upwards of eighty belong 

 to this section ; but the number of species in any broad sense 

 is not, I think, more than ten or a dozen. 



From a gardening point of view they are best classified in 

 two groups : first, low-growing kinds with a simple or slightly 

 forked raceme ; and secondly, species with tall deeply-forked stems 

 und a very compound inflorescence. First we get a group of species 

 with stems not more than three or four feet long, simple or slightly 

 compound racemes, narrow staminodia a couple of inches long, 

 and globose muricated capsules about an inch in diameter. 

 This corresponds to the Canna indica of Linnaeus, which has 

 been subdivided by Roscoe and others into many so-called species, 

 which differ from one another in the colour of the staminodia, 

 whether they are entire or emarginate at the tip, and whether 

 there are two or three in the outer rows. The principal New 

 World forms with three outer staminodia are patens, limbata 



