ANEILEMA.] COMMELINACE. 275. 
Siml. 532 ; Prain Beng. Pl. 1083 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ii, 784. C. 
communis, Roxb. Fl. Ind. i, 171? C. gelatinosa, Edgew. 
A tall branching herb. Stems 2-3 ft. high, stout. Leaves 4-7 in. long, 
very variable, sessile or stalked, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 
acute or caudate-acuminate, membranous, glabrous scabrous or 
villous ; sheaths about 1 in. long, the mouth bearded with long hairs. 
Spathes sessile or nearly so, ?-1 in. long and as broad as long, solitary 
or crowded in terminal heads, acute, funnel-shaped, glabrous or 
somewhat scabrous, usually filled with a clear, glutinous liquid. 
Flowers blue, about % in. across, in simple racemes ; large petal orbi- 
cular, clawed. Ovary 3-celled, the cells l-ovuled. Capsule % in. 
long, 3-celled and subsequently 3-valved, 3-gonous-obovoid. Seeds 
} in. long, oblong or ellipsoid, smooth, puberulous, lead-coloured. 
Very common within the area. Disrrre.: Throughout India and in 
Ceylon, and up to 6,000 ft. on the Himalaya; it extends also to the 
Malay Islands. 
2. ANEILEMA, R. Br. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 374. 
Herbs with simple or branched stems ; roots often tuberous. 
Leaves usually alternate, sometimes all radical, occasionally clus- 
tered under the inflorescence, usually narrow and sessile. Flowers 
in axillary and terminal panicles: bracts not spathaceous ; brac- 
teoles small. Sepals 3, free, membranous. Petals 3, obovate, 
equal. Stamens 2 or 3, filaments naked or bearded ; anthers oblong, 
‘ one usually smaller or longer than the others. Staminodes 2-4 3 
rarely with minute anthers. Ovary sessile, 2-3-celled. Frutt 
a loculicidal capsule. Seeds 1 or more in each cell, with a thick 
hard rugose or pitted testa.—Species about 60, in tropical and 
subtropical regions, chiefly in Asia. 
Cells of ovary containing 2 or more ovules, of 
the capsule 2-or more-seeded :— 
Seeds l-seriate in each cell; flowers in ter- 
minal or subterminal panicles :-— 
Cells of the ovary with 3 or more ovules, 
of the capsule 3-7-seeded :— 
Panicles terminating an erect leafless 
scape with large sheathing bracts ; 
leaves all radical, narrowly ensiform ; 
root tuberous . é ; . 1, A. scapiflorum. 
