IRIS VERSICOLOR. 
Blue Flag, or Flower de luce. 
PLATE XVI. 
Is the Hortus Elthamensis, published by 
John J. Dillenius in 1732, there are figures of two 
plants under the name of “ Iris Americana versi- 
color,” the one with an entire, the other with a 
crenate style. To one of these, the plant repre- 
sented in our plate apparently belongs. This 
plant however is so subject to variation in the 
colour of its flowers, the erenatures and direction 
of its stigmas, Se. that it has received from differ- 
ent botanists dissimilar names. The Linnean 
characters of Iris versicolor and Virginica are 
hardly sufficient to distinguish them from each 
other. Our plant is the Iris yersicolor of Muh- 
lenburgh’s catalogue, by his own declaration. In 
the character of its stem however, it agrees equally 
well with Iris virginica of Linnzeus and Michaux. 
It may be doubted whether the plant figured in 
