Philydraceae
A very small natural order of erect, terrestrial herbs, natives of Australia, the Malayan Archipelago, Eastern Asia, and the Pacific Islands. Flowers inclosed in spathaceous bracts, solitary, disposed simply at the sides of a rachis, or in a branched panicle, hermaphrodite, irregular; perianth free to the ovary, and having four segments in two series; stamen one, opposite the posticous perianth segment; filament complanate, often shortly connate at the base with the interior segments. Capsule ovoid or oblong, three-valved, many-seeded. Leaves linear or ensiform, radical or clustered at the base of the stem, often distichous; cauline ones few, smaller. The order contains but four species, and these are split up into three genera: Helmholtzia, Philydrum, and Pritzelia.