Descriptive Flora 



59 



the center of the flower. Sepals 3, turned back in fruit against 

 the pedicel. Fruits tiny, winged on the back, pointed with an 

 incurved beak and packed into a dense, flattened head, % — %" 

 across and forming only on the lower 3 or 4 circles. Leaf blades 

 4 — 10" long, entire, lanceolate, with heavy veins radiating from 

 the long, porous stalks that are triangular in cross section, 

 sheathing below, and coming directly from the fibrous roots. 

 Summer and fall. These plants are widely distributed and often 

 take complete possession of swamps, ditches and ponds, covering 

 big areas with their leaves. The starchy tubers were formerly 

 used by the Indians as food. 



COMMELINACEAE. Spiderwort Family. 

 Tradescantia Jtumilis Rose. Common Spiderwort. 



Plants with fragrant purple flow r ers, conspicuous for their 

 six feathery, purple stamens that are tipped with bright gold 

 anthers. Leaves alternate, sheathing, grass-like, parallel veined, 

 heavily ribbed and usually folded. Flowers in clusters coming 

 out of a cup formed by two opposite, unequal, leaflike bracts at 

 the end of the flower stalk and opening a few at a time, the buds 

 in the center opening first. Sepals 3, glandular-hairy. Petals 3, 

 delicate, equal, generally dark blue, sometimes real purple or 

 white. Pedicels about 1" long, glandular-hairy. Blossoms in 

 March, April and May. Common in low ground, dry rocky 

 hillsides, and loose rich soil of ledges. Roots short, thick, fleshy. 

 Distinguished from other species of this genus by the glandular- 

 hairy sepals and pedicels, and the tuft of simple hairs near the 

 tips of the sepals. Capsules hairy. Named for Tradescant, an 

 English gardener. 



* Commelinantia anormla (Torr.) Tharp. 

 (Tinantia anomala [Torr.] Clark). 



Annuals with ascending or erect, sheathing, parallel- veined 

 leaves and a large lavender-blue flower, 1 — across, blossom- 



* From manuscript revising and redescribing this species. 



