XYRIDACE^E. (YELLOW-EYED-GRASS FAMILY.) 547 



panded, peduncled, conduplicate, the base not contracted in fruit, 3 - 4-flowered ; the 

 odd petal round-ovate, nearly sessile. (C. agraria, Kunth.) Alluvial banks, 

 Illinois and southward. The smallest-leaved and smallest-flowered species. 



2. TRADESCANTIA, L. SPIDERWORT. 



Flowers regular. Sepals herbaceous. Petals all alike, ovate, sessile. Sta- 

 mens all fertile: filaments bearded. Pod 2 - 3-celled, the cells 1-2-seeded. 

 Perennials. Stems mucilaginous, mostly upright, nearly simple, leafy. Leaves 

 keeled. Flowers ephemeral, in umbelled clusters, axillary and terminal, pro- 

 duced through the summer: floral leaves nearly like the others. (Named for 

 the elder Tradescant, gardener to Charles the First. ) 



* Umbels sessile, clustered, usually involucrate by 2 leaves. 



1. T. Virginica, L. (COMMON SPIDERWORT.) Leaves lance-linear, 

 elongated, tapering from the sheathing base to the point, ciliate, more or less 

 open ; umbels terminal, many-flowered. Moist woods, from W. New York to 

 Wisconsin, and southward : also commonly cultivated. Plant either smooth or 

 hairy ; the large flowers blue, in gardens often purple or white. 



2. T. pildsa, Lehm. Leaves broadly lanceolate from a narrowed base, 

 pointed, downy-hairy both sides, minutely ciliate; umbels many-flowered, in 

 very dense terminal and axillary clusters ; pedicels and calyx glandular-hairy. 

 (T. flexuosa, Raf.) Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, and southward. Stem stout, 

 smooth below, 2 - 3 high, often branched, zigzag above, forming a close clus- 

 ter of small (8" -9" broad) lilac-blue flowers in all the upper axils. 



* # Umbels long-peduncled, naked. 



3. T. rdsea, Vent. Small, slender (6' -10' high), smooth; leaves linear, 

 grass-like, ciliate at the base; umbel simple, or a pair; flowers (6" wide) rose- 

 color. Sandy woods, Pennsylvania (?) to Kentucky, and southward. 



ORDER 125. XYRIDACE^E. (YELLOW-EYED-GRASS FAMILY.) 



Rush-like herbs, with equitant leaves sheathing the base of a naked scape, 

 which is terminated by a head of perfect 3-androus flowers, with extrorse an- 

 thers, glumaceous calyx, and a regular colored corolla ; the 3-valved mostly 

 1-celled pod containing several or many orthotropous seeds with a minute 

 embryo at the apex of fleshy albumen : represented by Xyris. But the 

 anomalous genus Mayaca, consisting of a few moss-like aquatic plants, 

 intermediate in character between this family and the last, may be intro- 

 duced here. 



1. MAYACA, Aublet. (SYENA, Schreber.) 



Flowers single, terminating a naked peduncle. Perianth persistent, of 3 her- 

 baceous lanceolate sepals, and 3 obovate petals. Stamens 3, alternate with the 

 petals. Ovary 1-celled with 3 parietal few-oVuled placentae : style filiform : 

 stigma simple. Pod 3-valved, several-seeded. Moss-like low herbs, creeping 

 or floating in shallow water, densely leafy ; the leaves narrowly linear, sessile 



