4. Iris virginica L. Southern blue flag. Fig. 347. 



Rhizome stout; leaves rather flaccid; basal leaves buff or pale-brown at base, 

 soon arched-recurving or falling to ground; flowering stem weak, to 1 m. high, 

 simple or somewhat branched in the inflorescence, soon low-arching and maturing 

 fruit on the ground or in water; spathe bracts firm, usually subherbaceous, to 14 

 cm. long; the 3 outer perianth segments with obovate to oval-obovate blade 3—4 

 cm. wide, with prominent yellow midrib expanding to a broad bright-yellow 

 pubescent patch at base (the elongate hairs as long as thickness of blade); the 

 3 inner perianth segments obovate to obovate-spatulate, two thirds or four fifths 

 as large as sepals; capsule ovoid to ellipsoid or thick-cylindric, 3-11 cm. long, 

 13-25 mm. thick, 3-angled, often asymmetrical, brittle-walled, dull or scarcely 

 lustrous on inner surface, early disintegrating; seeds rounded to irregularly D- 

 shaped, 3-6 mm. thick at back, 5-8 mm. wide, with an irregularly deep-pitted 

 brittle corky coat. /. caroliniana Wats., /. versicolor of auth. 



In marshes, wet savannahs and pinelands, shallow water in ditches and in soggy 

 meadows in e. Okla. (Cherokee and Ottawa cos) and e. Tex., Apr.-June; from 

 Fla. to Tex. and Okla., n. to e. Va. 



Those plants with a branched, not simple, inflorescence and with capsules 7-11 

 cm. long have been segregated as var. Shrevei (Small) Anders. (/. Shrevei 

 Small). 



5. Iris hexagona Walt. var. flexicaulis (Small) Foster. Fig. 348. 



Rhizome rather stout; leaves erect, mostly 3 to 5 together, pale-green and more 

 or less glaucous, linear-attenuate, mostly 1-2 cm. wide; flower stalk erect, rather 

 stout or slender, shorter than the basal leaves, exceptionally leafy, fractiflex, 

 glaucescent; flowers paired or 3 together at top of stem or sometimes solitary 

 and 1 and 2 together in the axils of the stem leaves; involucral bracts 2, not folia- 

 ceous, exceeded by the flowers; perianth tube cylindric-prismatic, almost 13 mm. 

 long; the 3 outer perianth segments broadly spatulate, obovate, 5-7 cm. long, 

 about 25 mm. wide, spreading or recurved at tip, bright-violet except basal part 

 which is yellowish-green; inner 3 perianth segments shorter than the outer ones, 

 narrowly spatulate, notched at apex, somewhat spreading, deep-violet, the claw 

 somewhat brownish; style branches nearly 5 cm. long, broadly linear, reddish- 

 violet except the paler margins; anthers shorter than filaments; capsule ellipsoid to 

 oval or somewhat obovoid, 5-7.5 cm. long, 6-angled, somewhat glaucous, the 

 walls thick; seeds brown, corky. 



Lowland and marshy areas in s.e. Tex., Mar.-May; also La. 



6. Iris brevicaulis Raf. 



Rhizomes rather slender, 10-25 mm. in diameter; stem fractiflex, loosely ascend- 

 ing to depressed, compressed. 15-53 cm. high; basal leaves lax, 3-6 dm. long or 

 more, 15-35 mm. wide; spathes terminal and subsessile or short-peduncled from 

 all but lowest axils, subtended by broad and very prolonged leafy bracts 2-6 dm. 

 long or more; spathe bracts subequal, to 5 cm. long, the outer pair green, the 

 inner pair scarious-margined; flower deep-blue or blue-purple; ovary prominently 

 6-angled; the 3 outer perianth segments 7-9.5 cm. long, 2.5-3 cm. wide, the 

 ovate blade slightly longer than the greenish-yellow dark-striped claw, the latter 

 with a yellowish-white summit; the 3 inner perianth segments oblanceolate, 

 slightly shorter than the sepals; style branches greenish, with entire or toothed 

 subquadrate to scmiovate crests; capsule 6-angled, ovoid to ellipsoid, 3-5 cm. 

 long; seeds irregularly circular, with thick coat. /. foliosa Mack. & Bush. 



Swamps, wet meadows, damp woods, marshes and bottomlands in e. Tex., Apr.- 

 June; from Ala. to Tex., n. to O., Ind., 111., Mo. and Kan. 



682 



