3. Cyanotis.] 143. COMMELINACEJE. 



shining and with sparse long silky hairs beneath, margins densely 

 villous or woolly, cauline sheaths often inflated, silky. Spathes 

 oblong -lanceolate '5- '6" usually shorter than the spiciform recurved 

 cymes, which are mostly clustered izi several-nate heads. Bracts 

 falcate dimidiate-cordate, acute, -S-'S" long by •17-- 2" wide, very 

 villous outside, sessile, each pair enclosing 2 (or more ?) sessile flowers 

 with linear-oblong or lanceolate villous or hirsute sepals '3" long. 

 Capsule broadly oblong • 13-- 15" hairy above, each cell with 2 broadly 

 conical seeds with an umbonate base and truncate or depressed mutual 

 apex, rugose. 



Singbhum, in the forests aud under bushes ! Fl. r.s. Fr. Sept.-Oct. 



Tubers elongate fascicled (resembling those of Aneilema scapiflorum). Leaves 

 often purple l^eneath. Petals blue-purple. Filaments bearded with tumid tip. 



Var. adscenchus, Clarke. Smaller, far less hairy, branches rooting and proliferous 

 at the nodes. Heads and spathes smaller. 



Chota Nagpur, Ranchi, Clarice ! Singbhum ! 



The roots are eaten. Under the Santali name Eodo jereng aral\ Campbell states 

 that " the root is given in long-continued fevers and also for worms in cattle. 

 The leaves are eaten as a pot-herb." 



4. FLOSCOPA, Lour. 



Erect or subscandent herbs with flowers in secund cymes in axillary 

 or terminal thyrsoid panicles. Sepals 3, free, oblong. Petals free, 

 obovate. Stamens 6, perfect (rarely one imperfect), filaments 

 glabrous. Ovary 2-celled, style simple. Ovules one only in each 

 cell. Capsule 2-celled, loculicidal, crustaceous. Seeds hemispheric. 



1. F. scandens, Lour. 



Not scandent in our area but erect and gregarious with stems 

 creeping below. Leaves sessile (or petioled, F.B.L) on the bearded 

 or ciliate sheaths, 2-4 by -4-1", elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, base 

 narrowed. Flowers lilac, in dense terminal panicles 1 • 5-2" long, 

 branches, pedicels and calyx closely glandular-hairy or hirsute. 



Wet places or in water. Purneah ! Eanchi and Palamau, elev. 3000 ft.! 

 Fl.. Fr. Sept.-Nov. 



Glabrous or thinly pubescent on stems and leaves, sheaths always hirsute or 

 bearded on margins and mouth, -6- -8" long. Panicles shortly peduncled, broad- 

 ovoid or pyramidal. Flowers subglobose, lower bracteate, sometimes white or 

 pink. Petals broadly obovate. Filaments purphsh, anthers yellow. Capsule 

 subglobose, -08", about equalling the calyx. Seeds pale-glaucous. 



Rhoeo discolor, Eance (called Tradescardia discolor in horticultural works) is 

 an erect plant 1-2 ft. high commonly grown in pots in verandahs, etc., with 

 somewhat the habit of a dwarf A {/are, the leaves being close sessile ensiform rather 

 stiff and erecto-patent, deep green with crimson undersurface and sometimes 

 coloured margins. The flowers are small white numerous in cymes enclosed 

 in axillary spathes. Capsule enclosed in the marcescent perianth, cells 1-seeded. 



" Grows in deep coppices," Mexico. 



Tn true Tradescantia the ovary-cells are 2-oviUed and seeds usually 2 and flower-j 

 in short racemes. 



Zebrina pendula, Schnizl. (usually called Tradescantia zebrina, Hart.) is a pretty 

 creeping and rooting herb with rather glistening ovate loaves marked with pale or 

 silvery and dark stripes, underside purple. The flowers are small red-purple 

 enclosed in a spathe. Stamens 6 inserted in the mouth of the corolla -tube. Ovary- 

 cells with 1-2 ovules in each. Native of Mexico. 



1082 



