THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
RECORD 
VoL. IX October, 1920 No. 4 
IRISES FROM JAPAN 
When we speak of Japan and irises in the same breath we refer 
to the big Japanese irises that in late June or early July give 
masses of color in our gardens, the type of plant and flower that 
we so often see used in Japanese decorative art, and yet other 
irises are natives of Japan though curiously enough they all have 
flowers of similar character. 
The genus Ivis belongs to the Monocotyledons. The newly 
sprouted seedlings are barely distinguishable from the grasses, 
but with age the foliage broadens out in most of the species, the 
roots become bulbous or rhizomatous forming, in the latter case, 
dense mats almost on the surface of the ground. This forms the 
first mark of division between various irises, and the second is 
drawn from the presence or absence of a beard upon the larger 
segments of the three-partite flower. In the fleur-de-lis* of the 
old-time gardens the beard is conspicuous with its yellow or 
orange tones, in the crested irises, there is merely a rudimentary 
ridge, colored to be sure, but with no hirsute developments, and 
in the beardless irises of which our native flag is an example, 
* The name “ fleur-de-lis” seems to have been first applied to the yellow 
iris that grows along the banks of the river Lys, in Flanders. The Franks, 
who invaded and conquered Gaul and established the Kingdom of France, 
in 468, adopted the flower of the Lys, “ fleur de la riviére de la Lys,’ or, 
pore briefly, “fleur de Lys,’ as their emblem. The name was anglicized 
“Blower de Luce.” (Rhodora 21: 180-181. 1919.)—E 
