78 cxLiii. coMMELixACE^ (clarke). [Cyanotis, 



0. CYANOTIS, i). Don; Eenth et Hook. f. Gen. PI. iii. 851. 



Sepals 3, lanceolate, more or less connate at the base. Petals 3, 

 small, blue or reddish, long-clawed, free at the base, the claws more or 

 less adherent into a tube. Stamens 0, perfect, similar ; filaments with 

 many or few beaded hairs, rarely quite glabrous. Ovary sessile, hairy 

 at the top, 3-celled ; ovules 2 in each cell. Capsule thin, 3-celled, 

 loculicidally :5-valved, normally G-5-seeded. Seeds 2 in each cell, super- 

 posed ; the large embryostega at the apex of the upper seed, at the 

 base of the lower. — Flowers, in all the Tropical African species, packed 

 closely in very short scorpioid cymes ; the falcate bracts frequently 

 imbricate in 2 rows, or the rows are not well marked, the flowers 

 appearing irregularly and densely clustered ; the clusters are sometimes 

 in the leaf-sheath.s, sometimes collected in heads — i.e. compound 

 clusters. 



Species 30 or more in the warm regions of the Old World. 



The Tropical African species all belong to the ?,Kx\i^Qnns Eu-Cyanotis, and are very 

 closely allied ; the flowers and capsules are so very similar in all the species that the 

 description in the genus may do well for all. 

 ='=Stem suberect from a bulb. 



Inflorescences in small heads, exserted from the leaf- 

 sheaths. 

 Leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate. 



Bulb about ^ in. in diam. . . . . 1. C.hirsuta. 



Bulb scarcely \ in. in diam 2. C. parasitica. 



Leaves linear 3. C. angusta. 



Inflorescences axillary, hardly exserted from the 



leaf-sheaths 4. C.fuecunda. 



"-!"^'=Stem annual, suberect, slender, often much divided. 



Inflorescences dense, often clustered . . . 5. C. lanata. 



Infiorescences very weak, few-fiowered . . . 6. C paucifiora. 



=''"''"-'''Plants neither bulbous nor annual. Flowering stems often lateral ; sterile stems 

 very short, bearing a tuft of larger leaves. 

 Inflorescences not included (nor nearly included) in . 

 the leaf-sheaths. 

 Stems abrupt at the base; roots thick. 



Flowering stems hemiscapose with 1 or 2 heads 7. C. longifolia^ 

 Flowering stems with well-developed leaves. 



Small plant with many axillary heads . . 8. C. polyrrhiza. 

 Tall plant with few axillary heads . . 9. C. djurensis. 



Stem abrupt at the base ; roots not thickened. 



Stems erect, hemiscapose ; roots wiry . . .10. C. caspitosa. 



Stems with well-developed leaves at the base .11. C. nodifiora^ 

 Stem creeping in water, with slender rootlets . 12. C. Mannii. 

 Inflorescences included, or nearly so, in the leaf- 

 sheaths. 

 Flowering stem 4-9 in. long, undivided . . 13. C somaliensis. 



Flowering stem 20 in. long, much-branched . 14. C.Jlexuosa. 



1. C. hirsnta, Fisch, et Mey, hid. Sem. Hort. Petrop. viii. 57. 

 Softly shaggy, or nearly glabrous. Bulb J in. in diam. , eatable {Roth). 

 Stem 3-15 in. long, suberect, often divided, with many heads, roundish, 



