COMMELYNACE^E. (SPIDERWORT FAMILY.) 485 



2. II. limdsa, Vahl. Leaves oblong or lance-oblong, obtuse at botb ends ; 

 epathe 1 -flowered ; flowers blue. (Lcptautbus ovalis, Michx.) — W. Virginia to 

 Illinois, and southward. July- Sept. 



3. SCHOLLEBA, Schrcber (1789). Water Star-grass. 



Perianth salver-form, with 6 nearly equal lance-linear spreading divisions on 

 a very long thread-like tube. Stamens 3, with similar oblong-arrow-shaped an- 

 thers (or rarely a fourth which is abortive) : filaments nearly equal, awl-shaped. 

 Pod oblong, invested by the withered perianth, 1 -celled with 3 projecting parie- 

 tal placentae, many-seeded. — A grass-like herb, like a Pondwecd, growing 

 wholly under water, only the (small pale yellow) flowers expanding on the sur- 

 face; the slender branching stems clothed with linear translucent sessile leaves, 

 and bearing a terminal 1 -flowered spatlie. (Named after one Scholler, a German 

 botanist.) 



1. S. grailiiiica, Willd. (Leptanthus, MicJix.) — In streams ; common. 

 July - Sept. 



Order 130. COMMELYNACE^E. (Spidertvort Family.; 



Herbs, with fibrous or sometimes thickened roots, jointed often branching 

 leafy stems, and chiefly perfect and G-androus, often irregular flowers, with 

 the perianth free from the 2 - 3-celled ovary, and having a distinct calyx and 

 corolla, viz. : Sepals 3, persistent, commonly herbaceous. Petals 3, ephem- 

 eral, decaying or deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, some of them often 

 sterile : anthers with 2 separated cells. Style 1 : stigma undivided. Pod 

 2 -3-celled, 2-3-valved, loculicidal, 3 - several-seeded. Seeds orthotro 

 pons. Embryo small, pulley-shaped, partly sunk in a shallow depression 

 at the apex of the albumen. Leaves ovate, lanceolate or linear, flat, 

 sheathed at the base ; the uppermost often dissimilar and forming a kind 

 of spathe. — A chiefly tropical family, not aquatic, here represented only 

 bv two genera. 



1. COMMELYNA, Dill. Day-flower. 



Flowers irregular. Sepals somewhat colored, unequal ; the 2 lateral partly 

 united by their contiguous margins. Two lateral petals rounded or kidney 

 shaped, on long claws, the odd one smaller. Stamens unequal, 3 of them fer- 

 tile, one of which is bent inward: 3 of them sterile and smaller, with imperfect 

 cross-shaped anthers : filaments naked. Pod 3-cclled, two of the cells 2-sceded, 

 the other 1-seeded or abortive. — Stems branching, often procumbent and root- 

 ing at the joints. Leaves contracted at the base into sheathing petioles ; the 

 floral one heart-shaped and clasping, folded together or hooded and forming a 

 kind of spathe enclosing the flowers, which expand for a single morning and 

 are recurved on their pedicel before and afterwards. Petals blue. Flowering 

 all sunnier. (Dedicated to the early Dutch botanists ,/. and G. Commelgn.) 



4\ * 



