332 IRIS FAMILY. 



7. LEUC6IUM, SNOWFLAKE. (Ancient Greek name means White 

 Violet.) In gardens from Europe; much like Snowdrops on a larger scale, 

 flowering later, the scape more leafy at base, and leaves bright green. 



L. V^rnum, SPRING S. Scape about 1 high, mostly 1-flowered, in spring ; 

 pod pear-shaped and 6-sided. 



L. SBStivum, SUMMER S. Scape 2 high, bearing 3-7 rather broader 

 flowers in late spring or early summer ; pod rounder. 



8. ALSTRCEMERIA. (Named by Linnaeus for his friend Baron Ahtrce- 

 mer.) Plants of the conservatory, from W. South America, of mixed species. 

 A. Pelegrina, LILY or THE INCAS, from Peru. Flowers few or solitary 



at the end of the branches, open, rose-colored or whitish, blotched with pink 

 and spotted with purple, with some yellow on the inner divisions. 



A. psittacina. Flowers umbelled, funnel-form in shape, the spatulate 

 divisions more erect and close, red, tipped with green and brown-spotted. 



A. versicolor. Flowers few, terminating the drooping or spreading 

 branches, yellow spotted with purple. 



9. POLIANTHES, TUBEROSE. (Name from Greek words for city and 

 flower; therefore not Polyanthes. And the popular name relates to the tuber- 

 ous rootstock, therefore not Tube-Rose. ) 



P. tuberdsa, the only species cultivated, probably originally from Mexico ; 

 the tall stem with long several-ranked leaves at base and shorter and sparser 

 ones towards the many-flowered spike (produced in autumn when planted out) ; 

 the blossoms very fragrant, white, or slightly tinged with rose, the choicer sorts 

 full-double. 



10. AGAVE, AMERICAN ALOE. (Name from Greek word for wonderful.) 

 Plants flower only after some years, and die after maturing the fruit. 



A. Virginica, of sterile soil from Virginia to 111. and S. ; has lance-oblong 

 denticulate and spiny-tipped leaves 6'- 12' long, and scape bearing a loose 

 simple spike of small flowers, 3 - 6 high. 



A. Americana, of Mexico, is the common CENTURY PLANT or AMERICAN 

 ALOE ; with very thick spiny-toothed and spine-pointed leaves, 2 -4 long, 

 pale green, or a variety yellowish-striped, the scape when developed from old 

 plants (said to flower only after 100 years in cool climates) tree-like, bearing an 

 ample panicle. 



121. IRIDACE^I, IRIS FAMILY. 



Distinguished by the equitant erect leaves (Lessons, p. 68, fig. 

 133, 134), of course 2-ranked, and the 3 stamens with anthers facing 

 outwards. Flowers showy, colored, mostly from a spathe of two or 

 more leaves or bracts ; the tube of the perianth coherent with the 

 3-celled ovary and often prolonged beyond it, its divisions 6 in two 

 sets (answering to sepals and petals), each convolute in the bud. 

 Style 1, or rarely 3-cleft : >t ; gmas 3, opposite the 3 stamens and the 

 outer divisions of the perianth. Fruit a 3-celled and many-seeded 

 pod. Stems or herbage rising from a rootstock, tuber, or solid bulb 

 (corm, Lessons, p. 45, fig. 71, 72) ; these are acrid, sometimes very 

 much so. All are perennial herbs. 



1. Perianth of 3 outer recurving, and 3 inner commonly smaller erect or incurving 



divisions : stigmas or more properly lobes of the style petal-like. 



1. IRIS. Flowers with tube either slightly or much prolonged beyond the ovary, 

 in the latter case coherent also with the style. Stamens under the overarch- 

 ing branches of the style: anthers linear or oblong, fixed by the base. The 

 real stigma is a shelf or short lip on the lower face of the petal-like branch 

 of the style, only its iuner surface stigmtitic- Pod 3 - 6-ungled. 



