It is more especially in the stamens that its structure is 
singular; of these the skin of the filament is excessively 
thin and hardly adheres to that below it, and it encloses a 
bundle of spiral vessels too long for the sheath of skin, so 
that while the latter is straight and even, the former are forced 
into a spiral direction from want.of room to straighten; the 
lobes of the anther too are placed transversely across the 
lobes of a heartshaped membranous connective, which is 
generally itself more or less lobed. 
lt may be considered that this genus shows more distinctly 
than any previously discovered, the transition from the Com- 
melynaceous order into the Xyridaceous and those others to 
which the name glumaceous is often applied. 
A greenhouse herbaceous plant of the easiest cultivation. 
Fig. 1. represents a calyx; 2. a corolla with the stamens 
and pistil; 3. a pistil; 4. a vertical section of the ovary. 
