CYANOTIS. ] COMMELINACE#. 279 
in the warmer regions of the Old World, from Africa and through 
India to S. China and N. Australia. 
Flowers in cymes, enclosed in 2-seriate faleate 
imbricating bracteoles :-— 
Roots fibrous ; stem and branches slender ; 
leaves ovate-oblong, glabrous or with 
spreading hairs . . ; . 1. C, cristata, 
Roots tuberous ; stem and branches stout ; 
radical leaves ensiform; cauline lanceo- 
late, hirsute . . ‘ : : . 2. C. tuberosa, VaR. 
adscendens. 
Flowers axillary, enclosed in the sheaths of the 
leaves ; bracteoles small, slender, not im- 
bricating : ‘ - . o ©. axillaris. 
1. C. cristata, Schult, f.' Syst. vii, 1150 ; Clarke in DC. Mon. 
ii, 247; F. B. I. vi, 385 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 534 ; Prawn Beng. Pl. 
1085 ; Cooke Fi. Bomb. ti, 794. Tradescantia imbricata, Roxb, 
Fl. Ind. wi, 120. 
A slender branching herb with fibrous roots. Stem branched from the 
base ; branches 6-18 in. long, creeping and rooting below, glabrous 
or with spreading hairs. Levves sessile, ovate-oblong, flat, glabrous 
or sparsely hairy, the margins softly ciliate, base rounded or cordate ; 
sheaths short, hairy. Flowers in scorpioid recurved cymes which 
are longer than the bracteoles ; peduncles 3-4 in. long; bracts 
leaflike, 3-1} in. long, ovate, cordate, acuminate, ciliate ; bracteoles 
} in. long, glabrous or ciliate with long hairs. Sepals lanceolate, 
acuminate. Filaments bearded above. Style naked. Capsule 5-4 
in. oblong, 3-gonous, truncate, nearly glabrous. Seeds ,\; in. long, 
striate and with 2 large pits on two of the faces, black. j 
Bundelkhand (Edgeworth under C. imbricata). Distrrs.: Throughout 
Trop. India, in hilly districts, and up to 4,000 ft. on the W. Himalaya ; 
also in Burma, Ceylon, and Malay Islands, extending to Trop. Africa, 
2. C.tuberosa, Schult. f. Syst. vit, 1153, Var. adscendens, 
Clarke in DG’ Mon. iii, 249; F. B.I., 386 ; Watt BE. D.; Prain 
Beng. Pl. 1085 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. 1, 793. Tradescantia tuberosa, 
Roxb. Fl. Ind. vi, 119. 
A creeping herb, with proliferous rooting nodes. Root of fusiform 
tubers. Stem up to 3 ft. long, swollen and hairy at the base. Leaves 
sessile, the radical and lower cauline 6-10 in. long, linear or ensiform 
