Bot. [mod. L. (Ruppius, 1718), f. the name of John Tradescant (the elder), a 17th-c. naturalist + -IA1.] An American genus of perennial herbs (N.O. Commelynaceæ) characterized by three-petalled blue, white, pink, or purple ephemeral flowers having six stamens clothed with jointed hairs; spiderwort.
[1629. Parkinson, Paradisus, 152. Phalangium Ephemerum virginianum Joannis Tradescant…. Tradescant his spiderwort.
1718. Ruppius, Flora Jenensis, 55. Tradescantia.]
1766. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. (1788), 350/2. Spider-wort, Virginian, Tradescantia.
1866. Treas. Bot., 317. The filaments of the Tradescantias have jointed hairs, in which a granular movement is seen under the microscope.
