In 1648 a book on medicinal plants of Brazil was published by Willem Piso, physician of the Dutch settlement in Recife (Brazil), then Dutch property and governed by Johan Maurits van Nassau. He provided the first description and illustration of both the wild Canna indica (as ‘Meeru, sive Canna Indica’) and C. glauca (as ‘Albara, aliis Paçivira’).