December 28, 1895. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
2?3 
TWO GRAND NEW CANNAS. 
Cannas, as a class, are a coming flower that does 
and will find many admirers in gardening circles. 
For some years past great improvements have been 
effected in the size and colours of the flower, in¬ 
dependently of the foliage, which is of considerable 
ornamental value in many of the old varieties. 
Fine flowers are now of leading importance, and the 
principal attention of hybridists and raisers generally 
is given to the effecting of improvements in this 
direction. At present the finest varieties which 
the individual petals measure 4 in. to 5 in., as is 
authenticated by the Bulletin de la Ste. Rle. d'Horticul¬ 
ture de Florence. The editor of the Revue Horticole of 
Paris, having grown the plant, also speaks in highly 
commendatory terms of its extraordinary vigour. 
The flowers are of a brilliant scarlet, conspicuously 
spotted, and have a broad border of golden-yellow. 
The leaves resemble those of a Musa in shape and 
size, and are nearly upright, but slightly recurved at 
the apex, and bright green with a lively silver 
margin. New stems continue to arise from the 
present. Besides that above mentioned the other 
variety to be noticed here is Canna Austria, the 
sister, so to speak, of Italia, but differing widely in 
colour. The flowers measure about 6 in. in diameter, 
corresponding in this respect to those of Italia, but 
they are canary-yellow, more or less spotted with 
red towards the base of the segments. In most 
other respects the variety closely corresponds to tha 1 
previously described. It flowers from April to 
December in the South. 
The illustration herewiih serves chiefly to give a 
Canna Italia. 
reach our shores come from the Continent, and 
amongst the raisers of new sorts Messrs. Damman 
& Co., San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples, Italy, take 
a prominent part. The accompanying illustration of 
Canna Italia we have been enabled to lay before our 
readers through the favour of the Italian firm. 
The flowers of Italia are of gigantic proportions 
for this class of plants, but the dimensions of the 
other parts of the plant have also been increased, at 
least when grown under the sunny skies of Italy and 
France. The plant attains a height of 6 ft. to 9 ft , 
and bears spikes of bloom about 16 in. in length, and 
rhizome, and keep up a succession of bloom from 
spring till autumn in the sunny South, and if grown 
in pots might probably be induced to flower during 
winter. The amount and continuity of flowering 
would, of course, depend upon the size of the plants 
or the number of them in a collection. If there is a 
desire on the part of cultivators to confine their 
plants to small pots, then the number of individuals 
must be increased. 
Something like thirty new varieties have been 
raised by Messrs. Damman & Co., but there is only 
stock of two of them to be put into commerce at 
relative idea of the habit of the plant and the 
relation of the flowers to the foliage. All parts of 
the plant are necessarily very much reduced. There 
is a tendency at present to speak of them as Orchid¬ 
flowering Cannas, and the epithet is not inaptly 
given, for although Cannas are more distantly 
related to Orchids than Irises, still there is con¬ 
siderable affinity. 
Vines and vine Culture.—The best book on Grapes. By 
Archibald F. Barron, Superintendent of the Royal Horticultural 
Society’s Gardens, Chiswick; Secretary of the Fruit Com¬ 
mittee. Demy 8vo., Handsomely bound in Cloth. Price, 5s. 
post free, 5s. 3d., from Gardening World Office, 1, 
Clement's Inn, Strand, W.C. 
