1 82 Plants and their Ways in South Africa 



abundant in the western portion. One species is found in Chili. They 

 differ from the true rushes to which Pahniet belongs {Prionnm palmitd). 

 This plant is the large rush with the thick black spongy stems and leaves 

 something like a pineapple. It sometimes nearly fills rivers. The order 

 contains eleven genera, of which the following six are the most familiar : — 



Fruit dehiscent. 



Bestio ..... Sheaths persistent. 



Dovea Sheaths deciduous. 



Fruit indehiscent. Flowers in dense spikes. 



Leptocarpus .... Fruit angular. 



Thamnochortus . . . Fruit flattened. 

 Pistillate flowers solitary. 



Hypodiscus .... Flowers on a fleshy stalk. 



Elegia ..... Flowers in panicles. 



Order Commelynaceae. 



This order consists of a few genera of creeping or spreading 

 herbs with sheathing leaves and jointed stems. The flowers 

 wither quickly, and, unlike most monocotyledons, the calyx is 

 green and the corolla only is coloured. Anthers of some 

 filaments are either wanting or some are differently formed 

 from the others. P>uit a 3-celled capsule or indehiscent. 



Flowers issuing from folded spathe-like bracts. 



Commelyna.— Petals separate, the side ones clawed. Filaments 

 smooth, 



Cyanotis, — Petals united by their claws. Filaments bearded. 

 Flowers without an involucre, 



Aneilema, — Ovary 3-celled, with 2 or more ovules in a cell. 



Dithjrrocarpus. — Ovary stalked, 2-celled ; ovules i in a cell. 



Linnaeus, with all his love for study of plants, enjoyed a 

 joke. He tells us that he named this genus after three Dutch 

 botanists, the brothers Commelyn, because two of them, likened 

 to the two showy blue or yellow petals, were industrious, and 

 published their works on Botany. The third, Kaspar, lacking 

 in ambition, amounted to nothing, like the third insignificant 

 white petal. Fortunately, poor brother Kaspar was dead before 

 the birth of the joke. 



There is an interesting division of labour between the 



