SPIDERWORT FAMILY 35 



Leaves basal, grasslike, 2-5. long. Marshes and shallow 

 water. Blooming from winter to late summer. Fla. to N. J. 

 and Texas. 



Eriocaulon decangulare. Stouter than above species. 

 Leaves 4-20 in. long. Blooming from spring to fall. Fla. to 

 N. J. and Texas. 



Syngonanthus flavidulus. Heads whitish, ^ in. across or 

 less. Flowering-stems slender, 4-12 in. tall. Leaves 1-2 in. 

 long, many, very narrow, webby at base. Low pinelands. 

 Blooming from midwinter to fall. Fla. to Va. 



Ladmocaulon minus. Heads gray or brown, very small. 

 Flowering-stems pubescent, 4-ribbed, 2-10 in. tall. Leaves 

 narrow, about 1 in. long. Low grounds. Blooming from 

 spring to fall. Fla. to N. C. 



SPIDERWORT FAMILY (CommeUnaceae) 



Herbaceous plants. Leaves alternate. Flowers fragile, of 3 

 blue, pink, or (rarely) white petals. Fruit a capsule. 



Dew-Flower. Day-Flower (Genus Commelina) 



A peculiarity by which this genus is easily identified 

 is that although each flower has three petals one petal is 

 so small that it makes no show at all, and the flowers, 

 therefore, seem always to have lost a petal. 



The common dew-flower in many places is the large- 

 flowered C. angustifolia, which blooms more or less all 

 the year. In some localities the common species is a 

 small weed, C, nudiflora. 



So ephemeral are dew-flowers that by ten o'clock on a 

 warm morning the beauty of C. angustifolia is lost in a 

 pulpy mass of wilted petals. Insects are attracted to this, 

 and in feeding on it are besmeared with pollen, which, as 

 they crawl about, they carry from one flower to another, 

 and so effect cross-pollination. But, as in many other 

 flowers, self-pollination also is ensured as the stamens 



