WNT S TN 
COMMELYNA SALICIFOLIA. 
2. Commelyna salicifolia. Kunth Enum. IV. p. 89. Roxb. Flor. Ind.I. p. 172, et t.1020 in Calcutta Herbario. 
Hassk. Commelynacer, p. 27. Miquel Flor. Ind. IIL. p.582, quoad descript. 
Folia subglabra anguste oblonga. Spaths complicate, basi cordate, longe acuminate. Semina 5 (perraro 4 loculo 
tertio obsoleto) levia. 
Hab. Tn Bengalia ubique. 
Distributio Indica. Tn planitie Gangetica superiore. In Peninsula Indica. In Burma. 
Pedunculus inferior 1 vel 2 masculos flores habet. Pedunculus superior 3-5 flores gerit quorum duo saltem inferiores 
perfecti : idcirco in quaque spatha dux capsule swpius videntur. Semina 4, utrinque minima appendicula munita, sparguntur ; semen 
quintum in loculo indehiscente herit. Semina matura obscure et minutissime flocculosa. 
Vidi specimina viva spontanea numerosissima. 
This species among grass or bushes becomes subscandent, and throws out little-branched succulent stems which run 6 feet 
or more. It varies from this large type to the small form called 8 angustata by Hasskarl, Commelynacew, p. 27, with scattered spathes. 
Bentham in Hongkong Flora, p. 376 and Thwaites in Ceylon Enumeration, p. 321, lay stress on the shape of the odd petal in 
this species in separating it from C. communis. I believe the distinction which I have taken in the smoothness (i. ¢, non-reticulation) 
of the seeds to be infallible. 
Commelyna communis has sometimes narrow leaves and elongated spathes, and then in the absence of ripe seeds I cannot 
distinguish it from the small forms of O. salicifolia. No. 23 ex herb Hk. f. et Th. and No, 28 ex herb Hk. f. et Th. both issued from 
Kew under the name of C. salicifolia are both (. is, for these 
peci exhibit ripe seeds. 
The Ceylon prodromus No. 2979 referred by Thwaites to C. salicifolia Roxb. cannot be the plant judging by the specimen 
issued by Thwaites to the Calcutta Herbarium : but this specimen is not in frnit so that I cannot say what it is. 
In some specimens of C. salicifolia sent down from Assam, (and in some collected by me in Chota Nagpore), some of the 
capsules have the third cell obsolete and therefore only 4 seeds : but there are other normal 5-seeded capsules on the same specimens. 
Commelyna salicifolia g monosperma described in my paper in Linnean Journal, Vol. XI. p. 443, is Commelyna appendi- 
culata infra. 
EXPLICATIO TABULA. II. 
Planta e tabula 1020 Roxburghii exscripta. 
Spatha dimidiata cum floribus e tabula 1020 Roxburghii exscripta, 
1. Capsula matura a latere visa in pedicello resupinata, 
2, Capsula matura a tergo visa, 
8. Capsula matura a facie visa. 
i 
Capsule dehiscentis horizontalis sectio, 
5. Capsule valvula vacua amota est : quatuor semina duorum majorum loculorum in situ videntur, 
6. Quintum semen e loculo clauso excisum ab externa facie visum, 
7 Seminis in fig. 6, horizontalis sectio, 
8, Quatuor semina in fig. 5. a facie interiore visa, 
co) 
Quintum semen in fig. 6. a facie interiore visum : hilum lineare videtur, 
