364 CLVIII. PHILYDRACEA. (J. D. Hooker.) [Philydrum. 



A tall stout herb, 2-3 ft., more or less woolly; stem simple or nearly so. Leaves 

 1-2 ft., distichous and eqnitant at the base, ensiform, upper passing into lanceolate 

 bracts. Spike 1-2 ft., simple or branched, woolly ; bracts 1-2- fld.; flowers sessile, 

 yellow, % in. diam. Sepals hairy, many -nerved, margins subinvolute in bud. Stamen 

 as long as the sepals, filament flattened, acute; anther transverse; staminodes sub- 

 connate with the filament. Ovary 1-celled, placentas broadly 2 -lobed, ovules very 

 many ; stigma broad, 3-angled. Capsule oblong. Seeds narrowly oblong, striate 

 and tuberculate, chalaza black, funicle short pale. 



ORDER CLIX. XYRIDEJE. 



Tufted rigid herbs. Leaves radical, linear or subulate. Scape simple, 

 naked. Flowers sessile in the rigid dark brown imbricating bracts of a 

 terminal head or spike, bisexual. Bracteoles (sepals?) 3, deciduous, 

 scarious, embracing the claws of the petals, 2 lateral, 1 broader dorsal 

 often hooded. Petals 3, clawed, claw erect spreading, limb golden yellow, 

 marcescent. Stamens 3, inserted at the bases of the petals, included ; 

 anthers sagittate ; staminodes 3, alternating with the inner segments, 

 filiform, bearded or antheriferous, sometimes 0. Ovary free, imperfectly 

 3-celled ; placentas 3, many-ovuled, basal and confluent or parietal ; style 

 trifid, stigmas capitate or dilated ; ovules anatropous. Capsule locuhci- 

 dally 3-valved, or with the top circumsciss. Seeds numerous, linear, 

 albumen flowery, embryo minute. Genera 2, species about 50, one (Xyris) 

 found in all warm regions ; the other American. 



XYRIS? Linn. 

 Characters of the Order. 

 * Leaves distinctly fiat. 



1. X. indica, Linn. Sp. PI. 62; robust, leaves loriform - in. broad, 

 scape stout deeply grooved, spike ovoid or globose, bracts orbicular or 

 cuneately obovate. Vahl Enum. ii. 204 ; Roxl). Fl. Ind. i 179 ; Mart, in 

 Wall. PL As. Ear. iii. 30; Kunth Enum. iv. 20; Wall. Cat. 6086 B, C. ; 

 Dalz. & Oils. Bomb. Fl. 259 ; Miq. Fl. Ind. Bat. iii. 528 ; Steud. Syn. PL 

 Cyp. 288,Rheede Hort. Mai. ix. t. 7. 



BENGAL, in low marshes, at the foot of the SIKKIM, ASSAM and KHASIA HILLS, 

 southward to MALACCA and from the South Concan (in salt marshes) to CEYLON. 

 DISTBIB. Malay Islands. 



Leaves 1-2 ft., spongy, obtuse. Scape as long, acutely angled. Spike - in. ; 

 bracts in. broad, few or many, dark red brown, shining, broader than long, 

 margins scarious ; bracteoles linear-spathulate, smooth. Petals orbicular, erose. 



2. X. robusta, Mart, in Wall. PL As. Rar. ii. 30; leaves scape and 

 spike of X. indica, but bracts broadly ovate-oblong longer than broad. 

 Wall. Cat. 6087. Kunth Enum. iv. 19 ; Steud. Syn. PL Cyp. 287. 



SILHET; Wallieh. 



Apparently distinct from X. indica in the form of the bracts ; probably also 

 in other characters that are not available in the few dried specimens at my 

 disposal. 



3. X. anceps, Lamlc. III. i. 132; leaves narrowly linear 

 broad rigid twisted much shorter than the flattened or 2-edged grooved 



