2. TRADESCÁNTIA, L. Spiderwort.
Flowers regular. Sepals herbaceous. Petals all alike, ovate, sessile. Stamens all fertile; filaments bearded. Capsule 2–3-celled, the cells 1–2-seeded.—Perennials. Stems mucilaginous, mostly upright, nearly simple, leafy. Leaves keeled. Flowers ephemeral, in umbelled clusters, axillary and terminal, produced through the summer; floral leaves nearly like the others. (Named for the elder Tradescant, gardener to Charles the First of England.)
[*] Umbels terminal or sometimes lateral, sessile, subtended by 1 or 2 leaf-like bracts; leaves linear to narrowly lanceolate, flowers blue.
1. T. Virgínica, L. (Common Spiderwort.) Roots fleshy-fibrous, smooth or only slightly villous, more or less glaucous, often tall and slender and with linear leaves, rather rarely with 1 or 2 long lateral peduncles; bracts usually a pair.—Rich ground, N. Y. to Fla., west to Minn., Tex., and the Rocky Mts. Very variable.—Var. villòsa, Watson. Often dwarf, more or less villous throughout as well as pubescent. Mississippi valley and Gulf States.—Var. flexuòsa, Watson. Stout and dark green, with large linear-lanceolate pubescent leaves, the stem usually flexuous, and with several short lateral branches or sessile axillary heads. (T. flexuosa, Raf.)—Ohio to Ky. and Ga. T. pilosa, Lehm., is an intermediate form.
[*][*] Umbel pedunculate, subtended by small subscarious bracts; flowers small, rose-color.
2. T. ròsea, Vent. Small, slender (6–10´ high), smooth, erect from a running rootstock; leaves very narrowly linear, grass-like.—Sandy woods, Md. to Fla., west to Ky. and Mo.
Order 121. JUNCÀCEÆ. (Rush Family.)
Grass-like or rush-like herbs, with small flowers, a regular and hypogynous persistent perianth of 6 similar glumaceous sepals, 6 or rarely 3 stamens with 2-celled anthers, a single short style, 3 filiform hairy stigmas, and an ovary either 3-celled or 1-celled with 3 parietal placentæ, forming a loculicidal 3-valved capsule. Seeds anatropous, with a minute embryo enclosed at the base of the fleshy albumen.—Flowers liliaceous in structure, but sedge-like in aspect and texture.
1. Juncus. Capsule 3-celled (or imperfectly so), many-seeded. Plants never hairy, in moist ground or water.
2. Luzula. Capsule 1-celled, 3-seeded. Plant, often hairy, in dry ground.