It is more especially in the stamens that its structure is 

 singular ; of these the skin of the filament is excessively 

 thin and hardly adheres to that below it, and it encloses a 

 bundle of spiral vessels too long for the sheath of skin, so 

 that while the latter is straight and even, the former are forced 

 into a spiral direction from want of room to straighten ; the 

 lobes of the anther too are placed transversely across the 

 lobes of a heartshaped membranous connective, which is 

 generally itself more or less lobed. 



It may be considered that this genus shows more distinctly 

 than any previously discovered, the transition from the Com- 

 melynaceous order into the Xyridaceous and those others to 

 which the name glumaceous is often applied. 



A greenhouse herbaceous plant of the easiest cultivation. 



Fig. 1. represents a calyx; 2. a corolla with the stamens 

 and pistil ; 3. a pistil ; 4. a vertical section of the ovary. 



