PETALOIDEZ 203 
group, their ensiform leaves and violet or yellow 
flowers being extremely characteristic. The Crocus 
also holds a first place in the popular mind as one of 
the flowers of Spring, rivalled alone by the Snow- 
drop. 
There are about eight hundred species and fifty- 
seven genera, which are found in the temperate and 
tropical regions, especially South Africa and America. 
In the Crocus group the flowers are solitary or 
at most usually two, and the plants are small, includ- 
ing Crocus and Romulea. The latter is now extinct, 
golf-links at Dawlish being responsible. In the Iris 
group the flowers are numerous, in spathes, several 
in each spathe, and are usually regular. 
The stem is distinct and the leaves equitant. The 
order includes Iris and Sisyrinchium, the last only 
found in Ireland and derived from America. I found 
a plant in a stableyard in Leicestershire which was 
brought over in peat-moss litter. In the Ixia group 
the flowers are like Iris, but the spathe is one-flowered. 
These plants usually have a tuber or rhizome 
below. The leaves are equitant, in two rows. The 
veins in the leaves are parallel, converging to the 
apex. The plants are herbaceous. 
The outer perianth is made up of bright-coloured 
sepals which resemble petals, generally curved back, 
whilst the petals alternate and are erect. The flower- 
head is terminal and cymose. Below the perianth is 
united into a short tube, or a long one. It is, in fact, 
six-cleft in two rows, free in the young plant, after- 
