CXWT. COMMELINACE.'E. 707 



tubs, or as an edging. It is a native of Mexico, and is easily propagafed 

 bv cuttings. Tradescantia zebrina, Hort. ex Loud. Eucyc. PL v. 2 (1855) 

 8uppl. 2, p. 1340 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl. p. 94 ; Woodr. Gard. in Ind. 

 ed, 5, p. 517. 



Oeder CXXXVI. FLAGELLARIACEiE. 



Shrubs with long, usually climbing leafy stems. Leaves many-nerved, 

 usually long, with sheathing bases. Tlowers small, regular, hermaphro- 

 dite or dioecious, in terminal panicles ; bracts often lanceolate ; bracteoles 

 minute or 0. Perianth inferior, persistent ; segments 6, free, small, 

 imbricate, sub-2-seriate, dry or subpetaloid. Stamens G, hypogynous ; 

 filaments free, filiform ; anthers ovate or oblong, basifixed, 2-celled. 

 Ovary superior, 3-celled ; ovule solitary in each cell, anatropous, adnate 

 to the axis ; style short with 3 stigmatic arms, or styles 3 distinct. 

 Fruit a small berry or a drupe with 1-3 pyrenes. Seeds laterally 

 attached ; testa membranous or thick ; albumen flourv ; embryo 

 lenticular. — DiSTEiB. Genera 3; species 7-8, of the Old World and 

 Pacific. 



1. FLAGELLARIA, Linn. 



A climbing sbrub with long slender stems. Leaves many, lanceolate, 

 Avith tendril-like tips ; nerves many, parallel. Flowers many, small, 

 hermaphrodite, fascicled or spicate along the brandies of a terminal 

 panicle; bracts small, scale-like. Periantb subpetaloid; segments 6, 

 ovate, obtuse. Stamens 6, hypogynous. Ovary 3-celled ; ovule 

 solitary, affixed laterally ; style divided nearly to the base into 3 sub- 

 entire or 2-partite stigmatic arms. Fruit a small globose or ovoid drupe, 

 with a thin succulent exocarp and a bony 1-2-seeded endocarp. Seed 

 globose or ovoid; testa appressed, membranous. — Distrib. Species 

 1 Fijian and the following : — 



1. Flagellaria indica, Linn. /S)?. PI. (1753) p. 333. A reed-like 

 climber, quite glabrous, climbing over lofty trees by the leaf-tendrils ; 

 stem nearly 1 in. thick towards the base, terete, sniooth ; branches 

 clothed with cylindric smooth, striate, closed, truncate sheaths ; branch- 

 lets as thick as a crow-quill. Leaves sessile, 6-10 in. long, variable in 

 breadth, lanceolate from a rounded base, shortly narrowed into the 

 sheath, drawn out at the apex into a slender spiral tendril, many-nerved ; 

 sheaths cylindric, striate, 2-auricled at the apex. Flowers white, in 

 shortly pedunculate irregularly laxly branched panicles 6-12 in. long. 

 Outer perianth-segments j\ in. long, broadly ovate or suborbicular, 

 obtuse ; inner segments similar, more or less unequal. Anthers yL i^. 

 long, deeply 2-fid at the base. Ovary to top of stigma Jjj in. long; 

 style-arms about J-q in- long. Drupe pisiform, red, smooth. Fl. B. I. 

 V. 6, p. 391 ; Grab. Cat. p. 230 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 256 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. 

 V. 4, p. 317; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 12 (1899) p. 525: 

 Praiu, Beng. PI. p. 1087. 



KoNK.w : Stocks ! ; S. Koukau, Dahell ; among rocks near the sea, Balzell cf- Gibson.— 

 Distrib. Throughout India, chiefly near the coast; Ceylon, Tropical Asia and 

 Africa. 



