TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. © _ ear 
tire, narrow, sessile, and linear; peduncles all axillary, a 
little pubescent; involucrum 3-flowered, 
Oss, Perhaps only a yariety of the preceding; still it 
preserves the same habit under cultivation; the stems come 
up several from the same perennial root, always inclining 
to be decumbent, not above 6 inches high, the preced- 
ing 2 feet; flowers axillary, peduncles short; leaves rather _ 
thick, without veins, not more than 2 lines wide and 2 — 
inches long, perfectly smooth and rather obtuse; flowers 
very small, pale red, and so evanescent as rarely to be 
seen open. Fruit and involucrum as in the other species, 
On high, bare, gravelly hills near Fort Mandan, on the 
Missouri. Flowers in June and July. 
This genus, now contaiiing about 15 species, is 
thus far confined to Peru, New Spain, and the United 
States, being entirely an American genus. There ap- 
pears to be but one species of Ca/ymenia in New Spain, 
the C. aggrerata, having more than a single flower in 
the involucrum, while in the United States, in all the 
species it produces three or more flowers. The cali- 
cine, peltate involucrum, the deep emargination of the 
eet coin corolla, =a ho of the minute 
are appare ean essential 
distinctions ae ee hearean sama So 
ttt owen ‘infeviar. 
58. COMMELINA. L. 
Calix 3-leaved. Corolla $-petalled, mostly ~ 
unequal. Stamina 6, sometimes all fertile, but _ 
for the most part 3 or 4 are sterile. Stigma é 
simple. Capsule sub-globose, 3-celled, 3-valv- _ 
ed, 2 of the cells 2-seeded, the third with its 
proper valve, often abortive. 
Stem herbaceous, and often branching; leaves almost 
gramineous, alternating at the nodes of the stem, the — 
sheath of the leaveslong and entire, nearly cleft; branches" _ 
_ sheathed at the base; peduncles axillary or terminal, one — 
or many flowered; spatha cordate, persistent, closing and 
enveloping the flowers; rarely wantng- : 
Species, 1. communis. 2. erecta, 3. hirtella. 4. Firgi- : 
‘<< ston. >. oe 
- Oss. The genus ; feaimolail with the exception he. 
Species in the United States, and 2 others in Japans, 
‘asx - euliar to the tropical regions of and America: there 
