280 COMMELINACEM. [ CYANOTIS. 



villous, often purple beneath ; upper cauline leaves much shorter ; 

 sheaths of radical leaves about 1 in. long, glabrous, those of cauline 

 leaves shortly silky. Cymes \-\ in. densely hairy, in the axils of short 

 falcately decurved ovate acute bracts ; bracteoles many, imbricate 

 in 2 series. Sepals J in. long, linear-lanceolate, acute, densely villous 

 and ciliate. Corolla % in. long, bluish-purple ; lobes ^---J in. ovate r 

 subacute. Filaments spirally twisted, densely bearded with blue 

 hairs. Style thickened and with a tuft of hairs at the tip. Capsule 

 in. long, ellipsoid, hairy on its upper half. Seeds brown, obscurely 

 rugose. 



Agra ( Jacquemont). DISTRIB. : Chota Nagpur ; Bombay Pres. to S . 

 India and Ceylon. A smaller and more glabrous plant than the 

 type ; flowers blue. The type occurs in W. India from the A Konkan 

 and southwards to Travancore. 



3. C. axillaris, Schult. /. Syst. vii, 1154 ; Clarke in DC. Mon* 

 Hi, 244 ; F. B. I. vi, 388 ; Watt E. D.; Pram Beng. PL 1085 ; Cooke 

 FL Bomb, ii, 795. Tradescantia axillaris, Linn.; Eoxb.; Fl. Ind* 



a, us. 



Roots fibrous. Stem annual, 6-18 in. long, stout or slender, diffusely 

 branched, leafy, glabrous ; branches suberect or creeping below or 

 prostrate, glabrous or sparsely hairy, often coloured. Leaves sessile,. 

 2-6 in. long, narrowly linear or linear-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 

 flat, more or less hairy ; sheaths J to f in., inflated, ciliate. Cymes 

 reduced to axillary fascicles of violet-blue flowers clustered in the 

 inflated sheaths ; bracteoles small, almost concealed in the leaf- 

 sheaths. Sepals f in. long, lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla-lobes 

 broadly ovate, subacute. Filaments fusiform below the tip,, 

 bearded. Capsule about J in. long, oblong-ellipsoid, beaked, glabrous 

 except the beak. Seeds -fa in. long, oblong, compressed, truncate at 

 base rounded at the apex and with a very short conical tip, mottled 

 with dark-brown and shining. 



Bundelkhand, in marshy ground (Edgeworth) ; Agra (Munro) ; Rohil- 

 khand, Cawnpore and N. Oudh (Duthie), etc. DISTRIB. : Throughout 

 India, in the plains, and in Ceylon, extending to Trop. Australia. 



4. FLOSCOFA, Lour. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. vi, 390. 



Erect or subscandent herbs. Leaves lanceolate. Flowers 

 in terminal or axillary panicles of secund but not scorpioid cymes r 

 bracts minute. Sepals 3, oblong, free. Petals 3, obovate, free. 

 Stamens 6, all perfect or 1 imperfect ; filaments filiform , 



