546 COMMELYNACE.E. (SPIDERWORT FAMILY.) 



Order 124. COMJ?IEL,YNACEJE. (Spiderwort Family.) 



Herbs, with fibrous or sometimes thickened roots, jointed and often branch- 

 ing leafy stems, and chiefly perfect and 6-androus, often irregular flowers, 

 with the perianth free from the 2 - 3-celled ovary, and having a distinct calyx 

 and corolla, viz. : Sepals 3, persistent, commonly herbaceous. Petals 3, 

 ephemeral, decaying or deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, some of them 

 often sterile : anthers with 2 separated cells. Style 1 : stigma undivided. 

 Pod 2-3-celled, 2-3-valved, loculicidal, 3 - several-seeded. Seeds ortho- 

 tropous. Embryo small, pulley-shaped, partly sunk in a shallow depression 

 at the apex of the albumen. Leaves ovate, lanceolate or linear, parallel- 

 veined, flat, sheathed at the base ; the uppermost often dissimilar and 

 forming a kind of spathe. — A chiefly tropical family, not aquatic, here 

 represented only by two genera. 



1. COMMELYNA, Dill. Dat-flowek. 



Flowers irregular. Sepals somewhat colored, unequal ; the 2 lateral partly 

 united by their contiguous margins. Two lateral petals rounded or kidney- 

 shaped, on long claws, the odd one smaller. Stamens unequal, 3 of them fer- 

 tile, one of which is bent inward : 3 of them sterile and smaller, with imperfect 

 cross-shaped anthers : filaments naked. Pod 3-celled, two of the cells 2-seeded, 

 the other 1 -seeded or abortive. — Stems branching, often procumbent and root- 

 ing at the joints. Leaves contracted at the base into sheathing petioles ; the 

 floral one heart-shaped and clasping, folded together or hooded, forming a spathe 

 enclosing the flowers, which expand for a single morning and are recurved 

 on their pedicel before and afterwards. Petals blue. Flowering all summer. 

 Ours all with perennial roots, or propagating by striking root from the joints. 

 (Dedicated to the early Dutch botanists J. and G. Commelyn.) 



1. C. erecta, L. Stem erect, rather stout (2° -4° high); leaves large 

 (3' -7' long, l'-2' wide), oblong-lanceolate, the upper surface and margins 

 rough backwards, sheaths fringed with rusty bristles ; spathes crowded and nearly 

 sessile, hooded, top-shaped in fruit ; odd petal like the others but smaller, round- 

 ovate raised on a claw; pod 3-celled. (C. Virginica, Ed. 1. A hairy form is 

 C. hirtella, Vahl.) — Alluvial and shaded river-banks, Penn. to Illinois and 

 southward. — Our largest species, and the only one with a top-shaped spathe. 



2. C. Virginica, L. Stems slender, erect, or reclined and rooting towards 

 the base ; leaves oblong- or linear-lanceolate ; spathes mostly solitary or scattered, 

 peduncled, condit plicate, round-heart-shaped when expanded, pointed, in fruit some- 

 what hood-like ; odd petal usually inconspicuous and nearly sessile ; pod 2-celled. 

 (C. Virginica, L., as to syn. Pluk., which gave the name: Linnseus's detailed 

 description apparently pertains to No. 1, which however must bear the name 

 which he took from Dillcnius, the authority for the species. C. angustifolia, 

 Michx., is a narrow-leaved form.) — Damp rich woods and banks, S. New York 

 to Michigan, Illinois, and southward. 



3. C. Cayennensis, Richard. Stems creeping, glabrous; leaves ovate- 

 oblong or lance-oblong, obtuse, small (l'-2' long); spathes heart-ovate when ex- 



