IRIDACE. 139 
on the race-course in the village of Woodford; there is no garden 
near, and no probability of its having been cultivated in the neigh- 
bourhood (Mr. James Lynam). In a coarse meadow in the opening of 
the wood half a mile north of Woodford (Mr. James Lynam, in a letter 
addressed to Dr. Mackay, 1847). Mrs. Mathews, in a letter to the 
late Dr. Mackay, describes the plant as having been observed by her 
in two places more than a mile apart, in a wet ditch by the side of a 
mountain road adjoining a stony moor, and in another similar marshy 
place abounding with Narthecium, Anagallis tenella, Habenaria bifolia, 
Drosera rotundifolia, and other bog plants.” 
Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Stems in tufts simple or forked, 6 to 15 inches high, in the Irish 
plant with wings about the breadth of the solid part. Leaves grass- 
like, equitant, shorter than the stems. Spathe of two lanceolate 
sharply folded acute valves of nearly equal length, shorter than the 
flower, but one of the valves sometimes longer than the fruit. Flowers 
1 to 6, on slender pedicels. Perianth segments 2 inch long, very 
delicate in texture, deep blue within, nearly white outside. Fruit 
about the size of a sweet-pea seed. Seeds dull black, subelobular, 
rough. 
The Irish plant is the typical S. Bermudiana of Asa Gray’s Manual. 
The variety anceps (S. anceps, Cav.), to which our plant is referred 
by Professor Babington, has broader leaves and much more broadly 
winged stems, and has the valves of the spathe very unequal, one of 
them much longer than the flowers. 
The variety mucronatum (5S. mucronatum, Mfichz.), to which Mr. 
Bentham says the Irish specimens are much nearer, has the leaves 
considerably narrower, and the stem is more slender and with very 
narrow wings. The spathe has the leaves unequal, and one of them 
longer than the flowers. 
Blue Sisyrinchium. 
GENUS IT—TRICHONEMA. Kerr. 
Perianth regular, petaloid; tube scarcely extending beyond the 
ovary ; limb 6-partite ; segments all nearly similar, ascending-re- 
curved. Stamens 3, erect, inserted in the throat of the tube of the 
perianth ; filaments free, hairy; anthers affixed by the base. Ovary 
adhering to the tube of the perianth, short, ovoid-trigonous, coloured ; 
style elongate, filiform; stigmas 3, linear, involute, bipartite. Capsule 
of the consistence of parchment, ovoid, bluntly 3-lobed, loculicidally 
7 2 
