( 2644 ) | 
COMMELINA DEFICIENS. | T'wo-PETALED 
COMMELINA. 
JSEHIERIS HIS HSSeaisokikeksborer 
Class and Order. : 
Trianpria (rectius Hexanpria) Monoeynaa. 
Generic Character... 
Vide supra No. 1431. 
Specific Character. 
Comme ina deficiens ; herba perennis, diffusé ramosa, sub- 
erecta, geniculis aliquando radicans; foliis ovato-lan- 
ceolatis basi ciliatis ; involucro cordato-acuminato ; 
calyce pellucido; laciniis corolla duabus magnis cceru- 
leis, tertia abortiente ; stylo declinato assurgenter cur- 
vato; e staminibus, tribus superioribus minoribus 
antheris sterilibus, duobus inferioribus antheris ovali- _ 
bus polliniferis, sexta in medio posité, erectiore, an- 
thera magné dissimili pollinifera. W.H. =... - 
This plant is a native of the neighbourhood of Rio 
Janeiro. It was raised in the stove at Spofforth together 
_ with several other plants, by carefully preserving and 
_ watering the fragments of parasitic plants, which had been 
imported from Rio Janeiro, but had perished on the pas- 
_ sage, and the moss and vegetable earth adhering to them. 
The seed which produced this Commelina was like that of 
AustraemeriA, Pelegrina flattened on one side. The plant, 
now a year old, being tied up, is above six feet high, pro- 
ducing a constant succession of brilliant blue flowers, at the 
end of its shoots, which, in a natural state, would trail, and 
take root at the joints. It does not appear ever to produce 
the third petal, which seems to be always deficient or abor- 
tive. In Mr. Brown’s generic character of Commelina (see 
above 1431) it is stated, that sometimes two, sometimes 
four of the anthers are dissimilar and sterile. In our plant 
: the 
