Amilema.] CXXXIX. COMMELINACEiE. 1655. 



branch of the Inflorescence reduced to a sheathing bract. Panicle simple or 

 forked at the base, each branch bearing 2 to G unilateral racemes scorpioid when 

 young, the lowest on a long peduncle the uppermost almost sessile on the 

 common rhachis. Pedicels close above one another, the bracts reduced to a 

 small tooth, leaving in the old racemes a thickened closely denticulate rhachis. 

 Outer perianth-segments thin and somewhat coloured, 3 lines long or rather 

 more, inner ones larger, of a deep blue. Perfect stamens 3 with bearded filaments 

 and rather large anthers ; stamlnodes 3 with shorter glabrous filaments. Ovary 

 3-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell. Capsule acute or acuminate, rarely almost 

 obtuse, about as long as the perianth. Seeds finely and not deeply sculptured. — 

 Commelina gigantea, Vahl, Enum. ii. 177 ; Aneilema longifolia. Hook. Exot. Fl. 

 t. 204 ; A. ensifoli-um and A. secundum, Wight, Ic. t. 2074, 2075 ; A. nudijlorum, 

 ¥. V. M. Fragm. viii. 62, not of R, Br. 



Hab.: Cape York, Veiteh; Cape York Ptoinsula, Harm's Expedition. 

 Var. gracilis. Very slender, with smaller and fewer flowers. 

 Hab.: Rockingham Bay, common in long grass, Dallachy. 



4. CYANOTIS, Don. 



(Blue ears ; referring to colour and form of flowers.) 



(Zygomenes, Salish., name only.) 



Flowers regular. Outer perianth-segments more or less united in a 3-lobed 

 calyx, inner segments more or less united in a tube at the base with 3 spreading 

 lobes. Stamens 6, inserted on the inner segments ; filaments bearded towards 

 the top ; anthers all perfect, the cells opening inwards in longitudinal slits- 

 Ovary 3-celled, with 2 superposed ovules in each cell. Capsule 3-valved. Seeds 

 laterally attached, one at the lower angle the other at the upper angle. — Creeping 

 or ascending herbs. Flowers in short dense spikes or clusters, in a complicate 

 falcate leafy bract or spaitha, or within loose leaf-sheaths. 



The genus is dispersed over the tropical regions of Asia and Africa, the only Australian- 

 species is a common Indian one from Ceylon and the Peninsula to the Malayan Archipelago- 

 and South China. — Benth. 



1. C. axillaris (axillary), Rcem. and Schiilt. ; KuntJi. Enum. iv. 105 ; Benth. 

 Fl. Austr. vii. 82. A glabrous annual, with long creeping or shortly ascending 

 branches. Leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, 2 to 4in. long. Flowers 2 or & 

 together within the short loose leaf-sheaths. Outer perianth-segments nearly 3 

 lines long, shortly united at the base ; inner perianth deep blue, the tube slender, 

 cylindrical, longer than the outer segments. Filaments thickened above a dense 

 tuft of jointed hairs. — Tradescantia axillaris, Eoxb. Coromb. PI. t. 107 ',- 

 Zygomenes axillaris, Salisb. in Trans. Hort. Soc. i. 271 ; F. v. M. Fragm. viii. 

 62 ; Cyanotis axillaris, Clarke, Comm. et. Cyrt. Beng. t. 35 (copied from 

 Roxburgh) . 



Hab.: Elliott and Burdekin Rivers, Bcnoman. 



The species is a common Indian one. Salisbury, in giving to it the name of Zyyomenes,. 

 gave no indication of the extent or character he proposed to assign to it as a genus ; it cannot 

 therefore be taken as such a publication as necessarily to supersede the universally adopted 

 name Cyanotis. — Benth. 



5. FLOSCOPA, Lour. 



(From flos, a flower ; and scopm, a broom ; flower-racemes fastigiate.) 



(Dithyrocarpus, Knnth). 



Perianth-segments all free, 3 outer ones membranous, concave, imbricate, 



3 inner large, petal-like, one rather narrower than the others. Stamens 6, all 



perfect ; anther-cells opening in longitudina,l slits. Ovary contracted at the base- 



or shortly stipitate, 2-eelled with 1 ovule in each cell ; style subulate, with a. 



