29^ CommelinacecE. 



Annual (?), 1-2 ft. high ; 1. 2-8 by \-\ in., tapering from 

 the base to the acuminate tip, soft, rather spongy; scape com- 

 pressed, striate, rather stout ; spike globose or ovoid, \-\ in. 

 diam., dark brown or nearly black, few-fld. ; bracts \ in. long, 

 broadly oblong or orbicular, glabrous, membranous below the 

 middle, margins not scarious, outer nearly as long as the 

 spike ; lateral bracteoles \ in. long, membranous, keeled, keel 

 not winged, quite entire, dorsal with a keeled midrib ; anth. 

 and staminodes not seen. 



Wet land, paddy-fields, &c., 2-6000 ft.; rather common. Fl. July, 

 August ; yellow. 



Also in Himalaya and Nilgiri Mts., China. 



4. X. pauclflora, Willd. Phylo^raph. i. 2 (1794). 



Thw. Enum. 340. C. P. 999. 



Fl. B. Ind. vi. 365. Willd. Phytogr. fasc. i. t. i, f. i. 



Annual (?), 3-12 in. high; 1. narrowly linear, 3-8 in., 

 hardly ^r in. broad, rigid, acute or acuminate, smooth ; scape 

 subterete or compressed and 2-edged, straight or slightly 

 twisted, striate ; spike globose, \-\ in. diam., pale brown ; 

 bracts ioxv, \ in. diam., orbicular or obovate, rather thin, 

 dorsally furfuraceous below the tip, margins broadly scarious; 

 lateral bracteoles hyaline, keeled, keel quite entire, not winged ; 

 pet. broadly ovate ; anth. subsessile, very small, didymous, 

 cells obtuse at both ends ; staminodes very slender, with a 

 few terminal hairs. 



Paddy-fields and other wet places in the low country; rather rare. 

 Kurunegala; Matale; Ratnapura. Y\. Dec, Jan.; yellow. 

 Also in Bengal, Burma, Malaya, China, and Australia. 



CXXXVI.— COMMELINACECE. 



Herbs, rarely climbers, or undershrubs ; 1. alt., bases sheath- 

 ing, obliquely penniveined or veins parallel ; infl. cymose or 

 panicled ; fl. bisexual, often more or less irregular ; perianth 

 inferior, 6-partite in 2 series, 3 outer (sep.) herbaceous or 

 membranous, usually marcesent and persistent ; 3 inner (pet.) 

 petaloid, free or with claws connate in a tube below, often 

 very unequal, marcesccnt, two much larger than the others, 

 limb spreading ; stam. 6, inserted on the bases of the segms., 

 all perfect, or 2-4 with imperfect anth. (staminodes), fil. naked 

 or bearded with jointed hairs, anth. oblong or globose, often 



