Iridaceae. Iris Family. 
' 
Perennial herbs with creeping rootstocks. Leaves narrow, stiffish, 
erect, 2-ranked. Tlowers perfect and régular (in ours), subtended by spathee> 
like bracts$ perianth segments o, convulute in the bud, withering persistent, 
petaloid, similar or differentiated into two unlike whorls, the tube adherent 
to the ovary. Stamens 5, inserted opposite the outer segments; anthers 
extrorsee Ovary inferior, 5-chambered} style S-clefts fruit a 3-chambered 
loculicidal cansule, commonly 6-lobed in cross-section. 
Rootstocks well developed; flowers showy, the outer and 
4f inner perianth-sezments differentiated | 
Rootstocks short, the stems appearing tufted, flowers 
of small, the perianth-sezgments all similar 
L tris 
2. 
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Sisyrinchium 
eer 
