Cyclanthus
(from kyklos, a circle, and anthos, a flower; in allusion to the spiral arrangement of the flowers). SYNS. Cyclosanthes, Discanthus. ORD. Cyclanthaceae. A small genus (four or five species?) of stove, perennial, stemless, milky-herbs. Flowers odorous, the males and females superposed in alternate rings, or disposed in a confluent spiral; spathes numerous; peduncle very long, naked or bracteate, cylindrical. Leaves clustered, long-petiolate, bifurcate; segments lanceolate, one-ribbed, plicate, parallel-nerved; petioles terete, sheathing at base. For culture of the two species introduced, see Carludovica, on p. 268, Vol. I.
C. bipartitus (bipartite). l. plicate, sometimes entire, ovate-lanceolate, but more frequently divided more or less deeply in the upper portion--sometimes even to the base--into two lanceolate-linear lobes; petioles 3ft. to 6ft. long. Guiana.
C. discolor (two-coloured). l. bifid, the two divisions lanceolate, with a tapered point, more or less frilled at the edges; young leaves streaked with a tawny orange hue, which passes off as they become matured. 1882. A remarkable plant.