564 FLORA. OF TEXAS. 



and August. Stems l°-2° loug ; leaves 3-6' loug ; tube 

 of the perianth 1^' long. 



147. SPIDERWORT FAMILY. Order, Commely- 



NACE^. 



Herbs, with chiefly fibrous roots, jointed and leafy 5^em5, 

 and perfect or somewhat polygamous often irregular floxu- 

 ers ; perianth of three herbaceous or colored persistent 

 sepals, and three fugacious petals ; stamens 6, hypogynous, 

 perfect, or a part of them sterile ; anthers 2-celled, often of 

 two forms; styles single; stigma entire; ovary free from 

 the perianth, 2-3-celled, with l-several orthotropous ovules 

 in each cell ; capsule loculicidally 2-3-valveu, 1-several- 

 seeded; e?nbryo pulley-shaped, placed in a cavity of the 

 albumen opposite the hilum. — Plants somewhat succulent; 

 stems often branching ; sheaths of the leaves entire or open. 



COMMELYNA, Dill. Day-flower. 



Flowers irregular; sepals mostly c6\qyq^', petals fuga- 

 cious, two of them kidney-shaped and long-clawed, the 

 other smaller; stamens unequal, three of them fertile, the 

 others with 4-lobed sterile anthers ; filaments beardless ; 

 capsule 1-3-celled, the cells 1-2-seeded, or one of them fre- 

 quently empty. Stems branching ; leaves flat, oblong, or 

 lanceolate, on sheathing petioles, the floral ones cordate 

 and spathe-like, folded, and inclosing the few-flowTred pe- 

 duncle ; flowers blue. 



C. COMMUNIS, L. ? Stem smooth, filiform, and creeping; 

 leaves (short 1-2' long), ovate-lanceolate, obtuse; sheaths 

 fringed at the throat; spathes nearly crescent-shaped, ob- 

 tuse at the base, lateral and terminal; peduncle-'^ by pairs, 

 one of them bearing 3-4 small fertile flowers, w^hich are in- 

 cluded in the spathe, the other long-exserted, filiform, 

 1-flowered ; odd petal lanceolate, sessile ; seeds reticulate. 

 Low grounds. July-September. Stem l°-2° long. Annual 



