24^ FLORA, 



2-4, loosely several many-flowered; pedicels villous, slender; corolla blue or 

 purplish, rarely white. 2-4 cm. broad, very showy; sepals elliptic, ovate or ovate- 

 lanceolate, acute or obtuse, villous, 12-18 mm. long, much longer than the capsule. 

 In rich soil, mostly in woods and thickets, S. N. Y. to Ohio and S. Dak., south to 

 Va., Ky. and Ark. Escaped from cultivation in N. E. May-Aug. 



c" Tradescantia reflexa Raf. Reflexed Spiderwort. (I. F. f. 91 m.) 

 Glabrous to the sepals, glaucous; stems erect, 3-9 dm. tall, mostly branched, rather 

 strict; leaves linear, 2-5 dm. long, rather rigid, long-attenuate; sheaths large, 1- 

 3 cm. long; bracts of the involucres 2, unequal, reflexed; cymes usually densely 

 fruited; pedicels slender, 2-3 cm. long, recurved; sepals oblong or elliptic, appar- 

 ently lanceolate by the involute edges, 8-IO mm. long, hooded with a tuft of hairs 

 at the apex; corollas blue or red, 2-3 cm. broad; petals suborbicular; capsule 

 ovoid or oblong, 5-6 mm. long, glabrous. In sandy or loamy soil, Minn, to Fla. 

 and Tex. Spring and summer. 



7. Tradescantia montana Shuttlw. Mountain Spiderwort. (I. F. f. 

 911.) Dark green and glabrous or nearly so; stems slender, simple or sparingly 

 branched, 3-7 dm. tall. Leaves lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 1-3 dm. long, 

 mostly distant, their sheaths enlarged; bracts similar to the leaves but shorter; 

 cymes mostly solitary and terminal, sessile in the bracts, rather densely flowered; 

 pedicels and calyx glabrous or pubescent; corolla less than 2.5 cm. broad; sepals 

 apparently lanceolate by the involute edges, acute, hooded, 5-6 mm. long. In 

 woods and thickets, mountains of southwestern Va. to Ky. and Ga. June-Aug. 



8. Tradescantia pilosa Lehm. Zigzag Spiderwort. (I. F. f. 913.) More 

 or less puberulent or short-pilose; stem stout, 3-9 dm. high, commonly flexuous, 

 often branched. Leaves broadly lanceolate, acuminate at the apex, mostly nar- 

 rowed at the base, 15-25 cm. long, dark green above, paler beneath ; bracts usually 

 narrower and shorter than the leaves; cymes 3-8, terminal and axillary or on short 

 axillary branches, densely many-flowered; pedicels and calyx pubescent and more 

 or less glandular, rarely nearly glabrous ; corollas lilac-blue, 18-30 mm. broad. In 

 thickets and on shaded hillsides, southern Penn. to 111. and Mo., south to Fla. June- 

 Aug. 



Family 6. PONTEDERIACEAE Dumort.* 



Pickerel-weed Family. 



Perennial aquatic or bog plants, the leaves petioled, with thick blades, 

 or long and grass-like. Flowers perfect, more or less irregular, solitary 

 or spiked, subtended by leaf-like spathes. Perianth free from the 

 ovary, corolla-like, 6-parted. Stamens 3 or 6, inserted on the tube 

 or the base of the perianth ; filaments filiform, dilated at the base or 

 thickened at the middle ; anthers 2-celled, linear-oblong or rarely 

 ovate. Ovary 3-celled with axile placentae, or 1 -celled with 3 parietal 

 placentae ; style filiform or columnar ; stigma terminal, entire or minutely 

 toothed ; ovules anatropous, numerous, sometimes only 1 of them perfect- 

 ing. Fruit a many-seeded capsule, or a i-celled, i-seeded utricle. 

 Endosperm of the seed copious, mealy; embryo central, cylindric. About 

 5 genera and 25 species, inhabiting fresh water in the warm and temperate 

 regions of America, Asia and Africa. 



Flowers 2-lipped, stamens 6 ; fruit a i-seeded utricle. 1. Pontederia. 



Flowers regular ; stamens 3 ; fruit a many-seeded capsule. 2. Ileteranthera. 



:. PONTEDERIA L. 



Leaves thick with many parallel veins, the petioles long, sheathing, arising from 

 a horizontal rootstock. Stem erect, i-leaved, with several sheathing bract-like 

 leaves at the base. Flowers blue, ephemeral, numerous, spiked, the spike 

 (or spadix) peduncled and subtended by a thin bract-like spathe. Perianth 

 2-lipped, the upper lip of 3 ovate lobes, the middle lobe longest, the lower lip of 

 3 linear-oblong spreading lobes. Stamens 6, borne at unequal distances upon the 



* Contributed by the late Rev. Thomas Morong. 



