COMMELINA.] COMMELINACE&. 271 



bricate. Perianth inferior, 6-partite ; the 3 outer segments her- 

 baceous, often persistent, the inner petaloid, free or united below 

 in a tube, spreading above, marcescent. Stamens 6, adnate to 

 the base of the perianth- segments, all perfect or 2 or more reduced 

 to staminodes ; filaments often bearded with jointed hairs 5 

 anthers oblong or globose, often dissimilar. Ovary free 3 -or 2- 

 celled, style terminal, stigma small ; ovules solitary or few, ortho- 

 tropous, on the inner angles of the cells. Fruit a loculicidal capsule 

 or indehiscent. Seeds angled, testa smooth or rugose, albumen 

 floury ; embryo minute, far from hilum. Species about 300, 

 in tropical and subtropical regions. 



Stamens 2 or 3, perfect, with 1-3 staminodes : 



Cymes enclosed in spathaceous bracts . 1. COMMELINA. 



Cymes panicled ; bracts not spathaceous . 2. ANEILEMA. 



Stamens 6, perfect : 



Petals united below into a tube ; cymes 

 scorpioid 



Petals free ; cymes secund, in thyrsoid 

 panicles 4. FLOSCOPA. 



1. Commelina, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 368. 



Herbs, usually slender or creeping below. Leaves ovate-lanceo- 

 late, or linear,with lax sheaths, petioled or not. Flowers in usually 

 2-fid. cymes emerging one at a time from a terminal complicate or 

 funnel-shaped or hooded spathe ; flowers of the upper cyme-branch 

 small, deciduous, of the lower fertile ; fruiting pedicel and capsule 

 retracted within the spathe. Sepals 3, membranous, the 2 inner 

 often connate at the base. Petals 3, longer than the sepals, one 

 larger than the others and often clawed. Stamens 3, perfect, with 

 2-3 imperfect ; anthers oblong, one usually longer than the others. 

 Ovary 3-rarely 2-celled, two of the cells 1 or 2-ovuled, third cell, 

 if present, 1-ovuled or empty. Fruit a loculicidal capsule hidden in 

 the spathe by the decurving of the pedicel after flowering, the 

 posticous cell indehiscent or obsolete, or the 2 anticous cells empty 

 indehiscent and 'connate as a ligulate body, from which the posterior 

 cell falls away. Seeds ellipsoid or angled ; testa reticulate pitted 



