47, 48 
CANNA GIGANTEA. 
Tall Indian-Shot. 
MONANDRIA MONOGYNIA.— Nat. Oud. CANNM. 
Gen. Char. — Anihera simplex, margini filamenti petaloidis affixa. Stylus 
spathulatus, adnatus tubo corollae : stigma lineare. Capsula 3-locularis, 
3-valvis ; semina plura. — Roxburgfi. 
Canna gigantea; foliis petiolatis oblongo-lanceolatis, perianthii limbo 
interiore trifido, laciniis inaequalibus una cum labello Jineari-spathu- 
latis recurvo-patentibus. 
Canna gigantea, Redoute', Liliacees, v. vi. t. 331. — BoL Register, t. 206. 
Canna patens. Rose, in Linn. Trans, v. viii. p. 338. 
This truly magnificent species throws up many stems from the same root, 
which reach to the height of from 6 to 8 feet, and are formed of the long 
sheathing bases of the leaves. The leaves themselves vary somewhat in 
form, and remarkably in size, upon different parts of the stem; the lower- 
most ones being two feet in length and petiolated ; thence, as they pro- 
ceed upwards, they gradually become smaller and broader, so that the 
uppermost leaves are almost cordate, and not above 6 inches long ; the 
whole are of a most beautifully vivid green, with numerous parallel trans- 
verse nerves springing from the central rib. 
The floroers, of four inches or more in length, are terminal, racemed, the 
main stalk concealed by two long sheathing bracteas, green, with a brown 
edge ; the pedicels, which spring always in pairs, are likewise furnished 
with small ovate bracteas, which soon wither and fall off. 
Calyx of 3 ovato-lanceolate, pale yellowish-green segments, having a purple 
spot at their base. Corolla almost wholly of one imiform scarlet colour, 
tubular, formed of a double limb, of which the outer one consists of 3 
lanceolate, erect, submembranaceous segments, with their margins invo- 
lute ; the inner one is divided into 3 linear spathulate segments, of which 
two are nearly equal in size, the third (a lateral one) is much narrower 
and less spathulate, corresponding in shape with the labeUum, which is 
oblique, and together with the three segments just described, recurvo- 
patent, entire, or occasionally a little jagged at the point. Stamen : Jila- 
ment petaloid, broader than the lahellum, revolute at the extremity, of the 
same colour as the perianth, bearing the yellow anther on its margin, 
and embracing with its base, the linear spathulate, truncate, viscid style, 
which is of the same colour as the rest of the flower. 
VOL. 1. 
M 
