870 L. XYRIDE.E. 



XLIX. MAY ACE ^ Kunth. 



[Moss-like slender creeping pellucid PLANTS, growing in damp places. STEMS 

 branched. LEAVES alternate, crowded, linear, einarginate, flaccid. FLOWERS 

 g , axillary, solitary, peduncled, white pink or violet. PERIANTH of 6 pieces 

 in two series, marcescent ; outer of 3 herbaceous sepals ; inner of 3 membra- 

 nous petals. STAMENS 3, inserted on the base of the sepals ; anthers basifixed, 

 spathulate, imperfectly 2-celled, introrse. OVARY 1 -celled; carpels opposite the 

 petals ; style filiform, persistent ; stigma simple, minutely 3-lobed ; ovules sessile, 

 horizontal, on 3 parietal placentas, orthotropous. CAPSULE membranous, 1-celled, 

 loculicidally 3-valved, many-seeded. SEEDS sub-globose, terminated by a conical 

 tubercle ; testa ribbed ; albumen dense, of radiating cells. EMBRYO minute, half 

 immersed in the albumen at the end opposite the hilum. 



GENUS. 

 Mayaca. 



A small order allied either to Commelynea or to Xyridea and Restiatva, according to the value given 

 to the position of the embryo with regard to the albumen. 



The species are all American, extending from Virginia to Brazil. ED.] 



L. XYRIDE^E' 1 Kunth. 



[Herbaceous Rush-like or Sedge-like tufted erect usually rigid PLANTS, often 

 growing in watery places. ROOTS fibrous. STEMS simple. LEAVES radical, ensiform 

 or filiform, base sheathing, often equitant. FLOWERS g , in terminal solitary heads 

 of densely imbricating 1 -flowered rigid scarious bracts. PERIANTH of 6 segments 

 in two series ; 3 outer segments calycine, lateral, navicular, persistent, rigid; anticous 

 more membranous, larger, sheathing the lateral, caducous ; 3 inner segments petaloid, 

 clawed, claws more or less connate. STAMENS 3-6, inserted on the inner perianth- 

 segments, 3 opposite fertile, the others sterile penicillate or obsolete ; filaments fili- 

 form ; anthers extrorse, 2-celled, dehiscence longitudinal. OVARY 1- or incompletely 

 3-celled ; style terminal, 3-fid ; stigmas 3, 2-oo -lobed ; ovules numerous, basal, ortho- 

 tropous, funicle elongate. CAPSULE 1-celled, loculicidally 3-valved ; or 3-celled and 

 fenestrate at the base, operculate above. SEEDS numerous, angled or globose ; testa 

 coriaceous, striate or costate ; albumen fleshy. EMBRYO minute, lenticular, placed 

 outside the albumen at the end opposite the hilum. 



PRINCIPAL GENERA. 

 Xyris. Abolboda. 



Xyridfa are closely allied to Comtnelynece and Eriocaidonea, as also to JRajxitewetp, from which 

 they differ in the embryo not being immersed in the albumen. They are natives chiefly of swamps in 

 tropical and warm countries The leaves and root are used in the cure of itch and leprosy in India and 

 South America. ED.] 



1 This Order is omitted in the original. ED. 



* This Order is only alluded to in the original at the end of Eriacaulonece (p. 873). ED. 



