C 577 ] 

 IrisTristis Dull-Coloured Flag. 



Oafs and Order. 

 Triandria Mon*ogynia. 



Generic Characlcr. 

 &r. 6-partita : petalis akernis reflexis. Stigmata petaliformia. 



Specific Characler and Synonyms. 



JK.IS triftts ; (imberbis) foliis angufto-lanceolatis nudis g!a- 

 berrimis, caule ramulis et pedicellis villofis, petalorum 

 laminis oblongis obtufis: alternis duplo anguitioribus, 

 filamentis bafi connatis. G. 



IRIS trijiis. Thank Dijf. 39. prod. 12. Linn. Sup pi. gj. JVilld. 



-""UK/LA f or def certs. J acq. ic. rar. 2. /. 225. Coll. Sttppl. 29. 

 MORi£A tricolor. Bot. Rep. tab. 83. ejus Rccenf. Iris trips. 



Root afmall round tunicated bulb. Leaves of the fame habit 

 as thofe of Iris villofa of the foregoing number, but much 

 broader and quite fmooth. Stem from fix inches to a foot high, 

 ufually branched, terminated, as is alfb each branch, by a ge- 

 neral bivalved involucre, from which ifliie in fucceffion two, 

 three, or four flowers, on feparate pedicles, with fcparate one- 

 v alved, convolute, membranaceous fpathes. We have ob- 

 fcrved, that in ail the Cape fpecies of this family, when only 

 °ne flower is produced from the general involucre, it is nearly 

 twice the fize of thofe when the ulual number is produced- In 

 al1 the Cape fpecies of Ferraria and Iris, as yet known to 

 Us > the flower, after the parts of frudification have completed 

 their operations, forms itfelf into a kind of ball, the fegments 

 rolling inwards previous to its final decay; whereas, in Mo- 

 r *a and Aristea, the genera neareft to this, the flowers 

 commence their decay by twitting the fegments fpirally into 

 a kind of column. Our fpecies was found at the Cape, by 

 Thunberg, below the Duvvelfberg near the town. It feeds 

 fr eely, and produces plenty of offsets. The drawing was 



taken 



