^^,0 TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. mis. 



/g. communis : stem erect, distinctly flexuous ; leaves 

 narrow-ensiform ; interior petals a little shorter than the 

 stigmas ; angles of the germen not grooved when young ; 

 sides deeply concave ; capsule cylindrical-oblong. I. ver- 

 sicolor Pursh Fl. 1. p. 29. Curtis Bot. Mag. t. 21 = 

 I. americana stylo non crenato Dill. I. c. f. 187. 



Root large and fleshy, creeping. S(e7n 2 — 3 feet, rather taller 

 than the sword-shaped leaves. Flowers 2 — 4, in a terminal 

 raceme. Segments of the corolla spatulate, blue variegated 

 with yellow ; interior segments of a paler colour. Filaments 

 inserted into the tube of the corolla ; anthers linear, very long, 

 yellow. Stigmas very large and resembling petals, strap- 

 shaped, 2-toothed at the base. Ca/isule, when ripe, obscurely 

 triangular ; seeds flat, triangular. 



Hab. In wet meadows, ponds and rivulets : the variety a. is less 

 common than /S. which is abundant throughout the United 

 States. May — June. Common Flag. 



2. I. virginica L. : flowers beardless ; stem solid terete ; 

 leaves very long and narrow ; capsule elongated, prismaticj 

 acute at each end. W illd. Spec. I. p. 232 ? M u h I. Cat. 

 p. 4. \. gracilis Big. Bast. p. 12. ]. prismatica Pursh 

 /"/. I. p. 30. i^o em. (^ ,Sc Awn. I. p. 47G. Cat. pi. J^ezo- 

 York, p. 12. 



Root large and fleshy, creeping. Stem round, smooth, slender, 

 marked by a prominent line on opposite sides, but never anci- 

 pitous. Leaves seldom lialf an inch broad, and often much 

 narrower, generally overtopping the stem. Floivers 3 — 6, in 

 a terminal raceme ; fictuls spatulate, the 3 exterior ones spread- 

 ing, purple on the edges, yellow in the middle; the interior 

 ones longer than the stigmas, slightly emarginate. Germeii 

 triangular, angles deeply grooved. Capsule distinctly trian- 

 gular, sides flat. 



IIab. In wet meadows and swamps. In the brackish meadows 

 between Newark and Hackinsack. In the pine-barrens of 

 New-Jersey abundant. In the vicinity of Boston. Bigelow. 

 Near New-Haven, Connecticut. Prof. Ives. In Pennsylva- 

 nia. Muhlenberg. June. 



There has been much confusion respecting the two species 

 of lias here described, the principal cause of which is the im- 

 perfect descriptions given of tliem by L i n nxus and Wi 1 1- 

 denonv. The Iris virginica of Purgh and other botanists 

 is not sufiicienlly distinct from I. versicolor. Our l.' virginica 

 is the true plant of Linn a: us, according to Muhlenberg's 

 Herbarium, which I have lately had an opportunity of examin- 

 ing. _ Pursh quotes the >^-. in Dillen. Hort. Eltham (188.) 

 for his I. virginica, but the plant there represented is certainly 

 only a variety oil. versicolor, to which it is referred by Will- 

 denow. The character of the crenated stigma, represented 

 hy Dillenius,i% not noticed by Purs h, and was probably 



