Dianeila.} COMMELINACEAE, 445 - 
filaments short, thick fleshy, at least near the apex; the anthers basifixed, 
opening by a terminal pore, but the pore often continued in an introrse 
slit. Ovary 3-celled, with several anatropous ovules in each cell. Style 
filiform; stigma entire. Fruit a berry. Seeds solitary or few in each cell, 
with a alate crustaceous testa. Embryo linear, straight or curved, little 
shorter than the albu — Herbs with a short branching rhizome and 
fibrous roots, the stem leafy, at least at the base. Leaves distichous 
and equitant, linear-lanceolate, parallel-nerved. Flowers. usually blue, 
loosely cymose and pendulous in a terminal panicle, the pedicels jointed 
— ay flower. Bracts small or wanting. 
of 8—10 speci tending from ie Masearene over the Malay Islands and 
aheraiy t0 N. Zealand ia ries the Pac 
1. D. odorata, Bl. — Kunth, Enum. Pl. V, 51. — Stem short. Leaves 
stiff, 1'/2—3 ft. long, '/2—1/’ broad at the base, quite entire, closely nerved, 
with a keeled unarmed midrib. Panicle as long as the leaves or longer, 
its peduncle leafy, the apomsie bracts quickly falling off in size, the 
branches ascending, twice divided and drooping at the ends, the flowers 
secund (on one side). tics 3—6’'; bractlets eriwars Perk rianth pale 
lilac, campanulate, 3—4“ long, deeply pared into subequal oblong 5-nerved 
segments. Berry bluish, obovoid, ane eeds 2—3 in ca cell, Se. 
compressed and margined, abo ut 2 -- D. Nucci Hook. 
in Bot. Beech. p. 97. — Mrs. Sinslair, pl. 2 
Common on the lower hills. Flowers somewhat an Net. name: «U 
Species, as distinguished by the entire unarmed leaves, m Tahiti, . ‘chia 
and Khasia; but D. ensifolia, Redouté, which ranges ov’ er the nego part of In and 
Malaynia to ‘the Mascarene Islands, differs only in minutely serrate es with as ures 
keel. In S. China and Khasia both forms oceur together with pa alt transitions. See 
Benth. Fl. Hongk. p. 312, and Hook. & Arn. Bot. Beech. p. 218. 
Orper LXXXVI. COMMELINACEAE. 
Flowers hermaphrodite or rarely polygamous, usually slightly irregular. 
Perianth of 3 outer, thin, but calyx-like segments, rarely united at the 
base, and 3 inner, very delicate, petal-like segments or lobes, imbricate 
in the bud. Stamens 6, or fewer by abortion; anthers basifixed, 2-celled, 
entire or 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule or rarely indehiscent. Seeds peltate 
or angular, the testa usually wrinkled, a short or linear hilum on the 
inner side. Embryo small, partly sunk in a foveole at the fog or outer 
side of the fleshy albumen, covered by a scalelet — embryost 
often creeping at the base. Leaves parallel-nerved, uh sivkastiting 
tioles. Flowers blue, purple or white, in panicles, clusters or umbels, 
either terminal or issuing from the leaf-sheaths. 
