64 MT?. J. Gr. maker's STSTEMA ITITDACEAKTTM. 



ringodea are acaiilescent, witli a very short undergrouBd scape. 

 The habit so common in Liliacese and Amaryllidaceae, leaves all 

 congested in a basal rosette, and a produced, naked scape sup- 

 porting the inflorescence, is rare here. The common type is a 

 produced, terete or acutely-angled stem with a few, more or less 

 reduced leaves intervening between the base and the inflores- 

 cence. In SisyrincTiium the diff'erence between a terete and flat 

 stem separates a large and difiBcult genus into two unequal halves. 

 In Marica the stem is not merely flat, but as broad as the leaves ^ 



and quite leaf-like in appearance, and produced unaltered beyond 

 the single lateral cluster or corymb. 



Leaf, — The leaves of Iridacese are always either membranous or 

 coriaceous in texture, never fleshy ; so that in appearance and 

 persistence they are more like those of Cyperacese than the otlier 



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two great bulbous orders. Very few Irids are destitute of pro- ]. 



duced leaves, or have the leaves developed at a different time 

 to the flower. To the first, Bohartia apliylla^ to the second. Crocus 

 midijlortcs viwd speciosus are exceptions. The common type in the 

 order of leaf-form and arrangement, a distichous basal rosette of 

 linear or ensiform leaves so compressed that they clasp one ano- 

 ther by their inner edges at the lower part, occurs abundantly, in ' * 

 company with all the leading types of perianth-structure, for 

 instance, alike in Ixia^ Iris, and Gladiolus. Narrow, deeply 

 channelled, multifarious leaves in a dense basal rosette run uni- 

 formly through some genera, as Crocus and Bomtdea. Next to 

 the distichous-flabellate, the most striking type in the order is the 

 flat strongly plicate leaf, usually narrowed, either symmetrically 

 or obliquely, into a sort of petiole, a type which nearly always } 

 runs without exception through the genera in which it occurs, 

 and is represented at the Cape by Baliana, and in Tropical Ame- 

 rica by Tigridia^ EleutTierine, and several other small genera. 

 There are bulbilli developed on the axils of the leaves in species 

 of Sparaxis, HesperantTia,, and Morcea. 



Inflorescence and Bracts. — Iridaceae also agree with Cyperacese 

 and G-ramineae, and differ from Liliacese and Amaryllidacese, in 

 the fact that in inflorescence and bracts we get some of the best 

 characters for groups and genera. Here, as in the structure of 

 the perianth, we have in the order three well-marked types, 



VIZ. : — 



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1. Spathe essentially one-flowered and two-valved. Flowers 



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