COMMELYNACE^. (SPIDERWOKT FAMILY.) 485 



2. II. limdsa, Yahl. Zeaves oiZon^ or lance-oblong, obtuse at both ends ; 

 Bpathe 1-flowercd ; flowers blue. (Leptanthus oralis, Michx.) — W. Virginia to 

 Illinois, and soutliward. July - Sept. 



3. SCII6L.L.ERA, Schreber (1789). Water Stak-srass. 



Perianth salver-form, with 6 nearly equal lance-linear spreading divisions on 

 a very long thread-like tube. Stamens 3, with similar oblong-arrow-shaped an 

 thers (or rarely a fourth which is abortive) : filaments nearly equal, awl-shaped. 

 Pod oblong, invested by the withered perianth, 1-ceUed with 3 projecting parie- 

 tal placentae, many-seeded. — A grass-like herb, like a Pondweed, growing 

 wholly under water, only the (small pale yellow) flowers expanding on the sur- 

 face ; the slender branching stems clothed with linear translucent sessile leaves, 

 and bearing a tei-minal 1-flowered spathe. (Named after one Sckoller, a German 

 botanist.) 



1. S. gframinea, Willd. (Leptanthus, iW?cAa;.) — In streams; common. 

 July - Sept. 



Ordeb 130. COMMEL.YNA.CE.a:. (Spidekwort Family.) 



Herbs, with filrous or sometimes thickened roots, jointed often branching 

 leafy stems, and chiefly perfect and S-androus, often irregular flowers, with 

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

 corolla, viz. : Sepals 3, persistent, commonly herbaceous. Petals 3, ephem- 

 eral, decaying or deciduous. Stamens hypogynous, some of them often 

 sterile : anthers with 2 separated cells. Style 1 : etigma undivided. Pod 

 2-3-celled, 2-3-valved, loculicidal, 3 - several-seeded. Seeds orthotro- 

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

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

 sheathed at the base ; the uppermost often dissimilar and forming a kind 

 of spathe. — A chiefly tropical fiimily, not aquatic, here represented only 

 by two genera. 



1. COMMEIiifNA, Dill. Day-plowek. 



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 sterils-and smaller, with- imperfect 

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

 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 clasprng,Alded togetheror hooded and forming a 

 kind of spathe enclosing the flowers, which expand for a single morning and 

 are recurved on their pedicel before and -aflerwards. Petals blue. Flowering 

 all summer. (Dedicated to the early Dutch iotanists X and G. Commelyn.) 

 41* 



