Najadea.)] THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 403 
extend to the most northern parts, as 31° of N. latitude, from the prevalence there 
of the rainy season, and likewise to the Himalayas, where a few species are found 
during the same period of the year. ho 4 | | 
About fifty species, referred to the genera Commelina, Aneilema, Tradescantia, and 
Cyanotis, are’ enumerated as having been found in India; but from the imperfection of 
collections, there is great difficulty in identifying the recent with some of the earlier 
discovered species, so that all require the careful examination of any Indian botanist, 
who has opportunities of seeing them im a living state. In the northern parts of the 
Doab only a few species are found in the rainy season, and these appear to be identical 
with species indigenous in Bengal and the Peninsula, such as Commelina communis, 
bengalensis, &c., with Tradescantia axillaris ; Commelina obliqua, Don, found in Nepal, 
occurs also at Mussooree, and a new species of Tradescantia, T. radicans, nob. In Nepal 
are also found Anezlema hispida and radicans of Don, with his Cyanotis barbata. This 
genus is distinguished by the outer sepals being connate at the base, the three inner 
petaloid, with the claws united into a tube, into which the stamens are inserted, and of 
the two ovules in each cell, one is erect and the other pendulous. Commelina 
scapiflora, Roxb., which appears to be Aneilema longifolia of Wallich Cat. No. 5213, 
extends all along the Himalayas from Silhet to Manma, and is also found in the 
Kheree jungle, as well as at Mussooree. As this plant does not agree with the 
character of any of the genera, I have formed it into a new genus, which, in con- 
formity to the example of Dr. Wallich, in instituting his genus Kurrimia, I have 
named MJurdannia, in compliment to Murdan Aly, a plant collector and keeper of the 
Herbarium at Saharunpore, who collected many of the plants described in this work, 
and who had’ acquired a remarkable tact and quickness in detecting new plants, as well 
as in remembering the characters by which genera and families are distinguished, 
so as to be able at once to arrange a new discovery in its appropriate place. 
Commelina tuberosa is cultivated, and its tubers eaten by Chinese (Lour.) ; Murdannia 
scapiflora, mooslee seah; has some repute in Hindoo Materia Medica. | 
a | 3: rerbNe set ent bees , 
Perigonii exterioris foliola 3 calycina persistentia, interiora 3 petioloidea, sessilia persistentia. Sta- 
mina 6, filamenta omnia barbata, apice in connectivum dilatatum, anthera 3 fertilés loculis parallelis, 
3 difformes cassee. 
M. scapiflora. Tab. 95, fig. 8—Hab. Kheree jungle and Mussooree Hills. 
| 3 187. NAJADEZ or FLUVIALES. —— 
The Najadee or Fluviales, as they are called by different botanists, are aquatic 
floating plants; cellular in structure, and transparent in nature. They are grouped 
together from resemblance in general appearance, rather than from identity of charac- 
ter; neither are they very closely allied to any other order, except in some respects to 
Aroide. They are found in the current of flowing, or floating on the surface of stagnant 
water, and in estuaries of the sea in all climates. The species found in India are one 
. or two of each of the genera Najas, Caulinia, Ruppia, Zannichelia, with several species 
3 F2 of 
