324 
COMMELYNA CE.ffi. 
\_Commelyna . 
2. C. benghalensis, Linn. ; Kunth, Enum. iv. 50. Stems trailing, 
much-branched, 1-8 feet long, usually pubescent. Leaves ovate, 
acute, 1-3 in. long, often 1-1| in. broad, strongly ciliated at the base 
with strong brown hairs and the edges of the pale dilated J-f in. 
membranous sheath also strongly ciliated. Spathe-valves deltoid- 
cucullate, \ in. broad and long, pubescent on the outside. Peduncles 
both floriferous, one much exserted, with a single flower, the other 
with two or three. Sepals in. long, oblong-cucullate. Petals \ 
in. long, bright blue. Capsule oblong, membranous, the two dehis- 
cing cells each containing two small rugose seeds. Wt. leones , t. 
2065; C. B. Clarke , Comm. Beng. t. 4. C. cucullata, Linn. ; Bojer, Sort. 
Mar. 360. 
Mauritius, common in damp situations. Also Tropical Asia, Tropical Africa and 
Cape. Hcrbe aux cochons. 
2. CYANOTIS, D. Don. 
Plowers nearly regular. Sepals lanceolate, united below. Corolla 
marcescent, with a funnel-shaped tube and 3 equal segments. 
Stamens 6, all perfect, the filaments with a tuft of hairs at the top. 
Ovary sessile, 3-celled ; ovules two in each cell ; style filiform. 
Capsule regularly 3-valved, with two seeds in each cell. — Annual 
herbs, with the habit of Commelyna , several spathes usually congested 
at the end of the stems. Distrib. Tropics of the Old World. 
Species 15. 
1. C. cristata, Boem. and Schultes ; Kunth , Enum. iv. 102. A 
branched annual, with erect or spreading subglabrous stems \-l foot 
long. Leaves distant, spreading, lanceolate, 1-2 in. long, with a short 
clasping membranous basal sheath. Spathes 6-10, semilunate, gla- 
brous, under \ in, broad, congested in the axil of a leaf at the top of 
each branch. Flowers two in a spathe, subsessile. Sepals lanceolate, 
acute. Corolla bright blue, with lanceolate segments. Filaments 
long, flexuose, with a tuft of bright blue hairs at the top. Seeds sub- 
trigonal-oblong. C. B. Clarke, Comm. Beng. t. 36. Tradescantia cris- 
tata, Jacg. Sort. Find. t. 137. 
Mauritius, in waste rocky ground near Port Louis, Sieber , 143 ! etc. Tropical 
Asia, not Tropical Africa. 
C. axillaris , R. and S. ; Kunth, Enum. iv. 105, is reported doubtfully by Bojer as 
a Mauritian plant under the name of Tradescantia axillaris , and I have seen no 
specimens. It is an Indian, not an African species, differing conspicuously from the 
rest in habit by having its flowers congested in the axils of all the narrow linear 
leaves of the stem and the bracts minute and lanceolate, not spathe-like and folded 
together. 
Order XCII. XYRIDACE^]. 
Flowers dichlamydeous, hermaphrodite, densely capitate. Sepals 
3, glumaceous, persistent. Petals 3, bright-coloured, united in a tube 
