peduncles solitary or 2 to 4, to 35 cm. tall, 5- or 6-costate, slightly twisted, 

 glabrous, the basal sheaths longer than the leaves. 



In bogs, swamps and moist pinelands in e. Tex., Apr.-June; from e. Tex. to 

 s.w. Ala. 



2. Lachnocaulon Kunth 



A genus of about 10 species, all North American. 



1. Lachnocaulon anceps (Walt.) Morong. Hairy pipewort, whitehead bog- 

 button. Fig. 304. 



Stems short; leaves tufted, bright-green, olivaceous in age, linear-lanceolate, 

 to 7 cm. long and 2.5 mm. wide; peduncle rarely more than 3 dm. tall, 3-costate, 

 twisted, densely villous above, the sheaths to 7 cm. long; heads obconic-globose 

 or hemispheric, 3-6 mm. in diameter; involucral bractlets fuscous or olivaceous- 

 grayish, ovate to obovate, obtuse to subacute, long-villous on the back at the 

 apex; receptacular bractlets olivaceous-fuscous, spatulate, very obtuse, pilose on 

 the back at the apex; florets trimerous; staminate florets with 3 sepals, no petals, 

 3 stamens, the filaments united below and coalescent with a rudimentary corolla 

 or pistil, free above, and with oblong 2-celled anthers composed of 1 theca; 

 staminate sepals fuscous, oblong-obovate, connate at the base, rounded-obtuse and 

 comose at the apex; pistillate florets with 3 free sepals, petals reduced to hairs, a 

 single style, 2 or 3 style appendages, 2 or 3 simple or bifid stigmas and a 2- or 

 3-locular ovary; pistillate sepals free, whitish, oblong-spatulate, longer than the 

 receptacular hairs, obtuse to acute, pilose at the apex. 



In wet places in s.e. Tex., May-Oct.; Va. s. to Fla., along the Gulf Coast to 

 Tex.; also Isle of Pines, Cuba. 



The white pistillate flowers mingled with the brown staminate ones impart 

 a mixed gray and dark appearance to the heads. 



Fam. 32. Commelinaceae R. Br. Spiderwort Family 



Succulent perennial or annual herbs, acaulescent or with nodose stems, the 

 roots fibrous or sometimes much-thickened and tuberlike; leaves alternate, flat 

 or somewhat channeled, entire, parallel-veined, sheathing by a basal membranous 

 and often closed sheath; inflorescence terminal and/or axillary, a simple or 

 compound cyme or thyrse, occasionally 1 -flowered, sometimes attended by a 

 cymbiform spathe or foliaceous bracts; flowers usually actinomorphic but some- 

 times zygomorphic, bisexual; calyx of 3 usually free and imbricated herbaceous 

 sepals; corolla mostly ephemeral and deliquescent, the 3 colored petals equal or 

 unequal and free or united into a tube, the third petal sometimes much-reduced; 

 stamens typically 6 but sometimes fewer or only one, some occasionally reduced to 

 staminodes; filaments usually distinct, often bearded with moniliform hairs; ovary 

 superior, sessile or stipitate, usually 3-celled; fruit a loculicidal capsule, sometimes 

 enclosed by fleshy sepals, rarely fleshy and indehiscent. 



A large family mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. About 600 species 

 in nearly 40 genera. 



The seeds of some species in this family, especially those of Convnelina, are 

 eaten by various songbirds and game birds, and deer are known to browse the 

 plants. 



1. Flowers several, borne in a folded floral bract that is abruptly different from 

 the stem leaves 1. Commelina 



1. Flowers in an umbellate dichotomous helicoid terminal or lateral cyme, sub- 

 tended by 2 or 3 subequal or unequal foliaceous or rarely scarious 

 bracts 2. Tradescantia 



593 



