The plant seems to be included by Sir James Smith, 
with ovata, angustifolia, and parvifolia, in Regine; of 
which species he speaks as follows, in the place we have 
cited in the synonymy ; 
“Sir Joseph Banks, for nearly 50 years indefatigable 
in enriching the gardens of this country, is recorded as 
having introduced this superb flower in 1773. Its habit 
resembles a Musa or Canna, except in the want of a 
stem. The leaves are smooth, rigid, and coriaceous, 
erect, on long, straight, stout nearly cylindrical, smooth, 
radical footstalks, sheathing at the base. ‘The form of the 
leaf itself is usualy ovate, acute, entire; wavy or crisped at 
the base, especially on one side; furnished with a long 
midrib, which sends off several simple, oblique, parallel, 
transverse veins. Sheaths one or two, at the top of the 
cylindrical simple flower-stalk, nearly horizontal, thick and 
rigid, purplish and thin at the edges, acute, 4 or 5 inches 
long, each containing many flowers, which expand in suc- 
cession. The orange-coloured petals, 3 or 4 inches long, 
are strikingly contrasted with the blueish purple nectary, 
both together composing one of the most brilliantly coloured 
flowers in nature.” 
“We presume to think that S. ovata of Hort. Kew. does 
not deserve to be marked even as a variety, nor do the 
figures quoted answer to the character. The angustifolia, 
recorded as having been cultivated by the Marquis of 
Rockingham in 1778, we can aver to be a mere variety of 
Regine. If we mistake not, it was given to the Marquis by 
Mr. Bamber Gascoyne. Of this we are certain, that offsets 
of the original root, in the stoves of the late Marchioness, 
where for many successive years we have observed them, 
gradually. diminishing in the size and breadth of their 
leaves, became first S. angustifolia, and then parvifolia, of 
Hort. Kew. Similar varieties may indeed have been fresh 
imported from the Cape, but this does not prove their 
specific difference. In some specimens the leaf dwindles to 
a point.” Smith loc. cit. 
