THE COMMELINA. 



Commelina ceelestis. 



IKES and dislikes, as regards flowers 

 and plants, are not very easy to 

 explain, and we shall not now at- 

 tempt to say why it is that many 

 people dislike the Commelina and 

 the Tradescantia and the rest of 

 the " spiderworts." However, it 

 may not be improper to remark 

 that in proportion as taste is in- 

 fluenced by knowledge it becomes 

 universal. Large-minded and gene- 

 rous-hearted people discover beau- 

 ties and points of peculiar interest 

 in all the works of nature, and we 

 may reasonably expect to find the 

 wise ones of this generation unen- 

 cumbered with prejudices in their 

 observation of the wonders that 

 spring up around them. 

 The Commelina takes its name from the Dutch bota- 

 nists, J. and G. Commelin, whom it thus keeps in remem- 

 brance, just as its near ally, the Tradescantia, is named 

 after John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I., a man who 

 contributed in an eminent degree to advance the botany 



