ANEILEMA.] COMMELINACE&. 275 



Siml 532 ; Prain Beng. PL 1083 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. ^^, 784. C. 

 communis, Eoxb. Fl. 2nd. i, 171 ? C. gelatinosa, Edgew. 



A tall branching herb. Stems 2-3 ft. high, stout. Leaves 4-7 in. long, 

 very variable, sessile or stalked, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 

 acute or caudate-acuminate, membranous, glabrous scabrous or 

 villous ; sheaths about 1 in. long, the mouth bearded with long hairs. 

 Spathes sessile or nearly so, f -1 in. long and as broad as long, solitary 

 or crowded in terminal heads, acute, funnel-shaped, glabrous or 

 somewhat scabrous, usually filled with a clear, glutinous liquid. 

 Flowers blue, about f in. across, in simple racemes ; large petal orbi- 

 cular, clawed. Ovary 3-celled, the cells 1-ovuled. Capsule f in. 

 long, 3-celled and subsequently 3-valved, 3-gonous-obovoid. Seeds 

 J in. long, oblong or ellipsoid, smooth, puberulous, lead-coloured. 



Very common within the area. DISTBIB.: Throughout India and in 

 Ceylon, and up to 6,000 ft. on the Himalaya ; it extends also to the 

 Malay Islands. 



2. ANEILEMA, R. Br. ; FL Brit. Ind. vi, 374. 



Herbs with simple or branched stems ; roots often tuberous. 

 Leaves usually alternate, sometimes all radical, occasionally clus- 

 tered under the inflorescence, usually narrow and sessile. Flowers 

 in axillary and terminal panicles : bracts not spathaceous ; brac- 

 teoles small. Sepals 3, free, membranous. Petals 3, obovate, 

 equal. Stamens 2 or 3, filaments naked or bearded ; anthers oblong, 

 one usually smaller or longer than the others. Staminodes 2-4 ; 

 rarely with minute anthers. Ovary sessile, 2-3-celled. Fruit 

 a loculicidal capsule. Seeds 1 or more in each cell, with a thick 

 hard rugose or pitted testa. Species about 60, in tropical and 

 subtropical regions, chiefly in Asia. 



Cells of ovary containing 2 or more ovules, of 

 the capsule 2-or more-seeded : 



Seeds 1 -seriate in each cell ; flowers in ter- 

 minal or subterminal panicles : 



Cells of the ovary with 3 or more ovules, 

 of the capsule 3-7-seeded : 

 Panicles terminating an erect leafless 

 scape with large sheathing bracts ; 

 leaves all radical, narrowly ensiform ; 

 root tuberous . . . . 1. A. scapiflorum. 



