"It flowered in Mr. Fairchild's garden at Hoxton, in 1728, when the late Dr. James Douglass caused a figure of it to be drawn, and wrote a folio pamphlet on it. He gave it the title of _Lilium Reginæ_, because it was in full beauty on the first of March, which was the late queen's birth-day. Mr. Fairchild told me the roots were brought from Mexico; so he gave it the name of Mexican Lily, which is still continued to it by the English gardeners. It flowers constantly in the spring, when it is placed in a very warm stove. It is in beauty in February, and those which are in a moderate temperature of air will flower in March or April. "Not being so hardy as some others, it must be placed in a warm stove, and if the pots are plunged into a hot-bed of tanner's bark, the roots will thrive better, and the flowers will be strong. "It is increased by offsets." _Mill. Dict. ed. Mart._ [454] [Illustration: Nº. 454] Canna Indica. Common Indian Reed or Shot. _Class and Order._ Monandria Monogynia. _Generic Character._ _Corolla_ 6-partita erecta: labio bipartito, revoluto. _Stylus_ lanceolatus, corollæ adnatus. _Calyx_ 3-phyllus. _Specific Character and Synonyms._ CANNA _Indica_ foliis ovatis utrinque acuminatis nervosis. _Sp. Pl. 1._ _Ait. Kew. vol. 1. p. 1._ CANNACORUS. _Rumph. amb. 5. p. 177. t. 71. f. 2._ ARUNDO indica latifolia. _Bauh. Pin. 19._ CANNA Indica flore rubro. Red flowred Indian Reede. _Park. Parad. p. 376._ The _Canna indica_, a native of both the Indies, is a plant greatly admired for the beauty of its foliage and flowers, and on that account generally cultivated; it has been called by some _Indian Shot_, from the roundness and hardness of its seeds. We find it to have existed in our gardens in the time of Gerard, 1596. Parkinson was acquainted with that variety of it which has yellow spotted flowers: Prof. Martyn, in his edition of _Miller's Dict._ has quoted the chief of what these authors say of it, which as a matter of curiosity we shall here transcribe: "Gerard informs us, that in his time it was in the garden at Padua, that he had planted it in his garden divers times, but it never came to flowering; and that it must be set or sown in a pot, with fine earth, or in a bed made of horse-dung, in such manner as Cucumbers and Musk-Melons are: Parkinson says, in some kindly years this beautiful plant has borne its brave flowers, but never any ripe seed, and that it will not abide the extremities of our winters, unless it meet with a stove, or hot-house, such as are used in Germany; for neither house nor cellar will preserve it: Clusius saw it flowering by house-sides in Spain and Portugal, and says, that the inhabitants there use the seeds for making their rosaries." Mr. Aiton enumerates four varieties of it, viz. _rubra_, _lutea_, _coccinea_, and _patens_.