41 8 COMMELINACEiE. 



petals with erect claws and spreading blades, three 



stamens opposite to the petals, and a three-celled superior 



ovary ripening into a capsule with many seeds. 



Species 40 or less, in the warmer parts of the world 

 especially of South and North America, but absent from Europe. 

 India has seven. 



Nayned from the Cr^i?/^ XYRis, sharp, because of the stiff narrow leaves, 



Xyris schoenoides Mart. ; Wall. Cat. 6084 ! ; F.B.L vi 

 365, I 5. Perennial herb, tufted and often forming a turf. 

 Leaves slender less than Ye inch, broad, shorter than the 

 striate, compressed, 8 to 12 inches, scape. Flower ^ inch. 

 Two lateral sepals smaller than the front one, enclos- 

 ing the tube of the corolla. Petals yellow, not falling 

 quickly, joined at the base into a thin narrow tube. 

 Outer stamens, those alternating with the petals, reduced 

 to hairy staminodes ; inner three attached to the top of 

 the corolla tube, their anthers fixed by their backs. 

 Ovary one-celled, with three parietal placentas. Style 

 slender, and dividing^into stigmatic arms points outwards. 

 Fruit a capsule enclosed in the dry corolla tube, and 

 splitting open between the placentas in three valves. 

 Seeds numerous, egg-shaped, longitudinally ribbed, with 

 minute embryo at the further end from the placenta, the 

 radicle pointing outwards, t. 265. 



Pulneys : on the downs in damp places. Fyson 471, 

 Bourne 591, 692, 1757.^ Nilgiris. 



Gen. Dist. Himalayas in Nepal, Khasi hills, Ceylon, China. 



COMMELINACE/E. 



Herbs with usually zigzag stems and alternate entire 

 leaves with large sheathing bases and parallel nerves. 

 Flowers variously arranged, more or less irregular. 

 Sepals three green. Petals three, free or united into a 

 tube at the base, spreading, persistent after fading. 

 Stamens six, all perfect or two or more sterile as, 



