146 ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Var. y, Bastardi. 
I. Bastardi, Boreau, F). du Centr. de la Fr. ed. iii. p. 635. 
Sepals pale yellow, without an orange spot at the base of the oblong- 
oval lamina. Petals the size of those of var. 6, but rather abruptly 
attenuated into the claw, as in var. «. 
In ditches, marshes, and by the sides of rivers and ponds. Common, 
and universally distributed. I am unable to give the distribution of 
the varieties in Britain. Var. « I have not observed about London; 
but a plant which I brought to my garden from the marshes between 
Sandwich and Deal, on flowering proved to be I. Pseud-acorus of 
3oreau. Var. 6 is the only form I have seen by the Thames and 
its tributaries, and I have specimens of it also from Swanbister, Orkney, 
and Seton, Haddingtonshire. Var. y appears to be rare, and I have 
never met with it myself; but I have seen a specimen from Lord 
Mansfield’s fish-ponds, near Highgate; it is said to have occurred in 
Cambridgeshire ; and was also found in Ayrshire by Mr. James Smith, 
of Ayr. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Rootstock as thick as a man’s finger or thicker, dark brown, the 
flesh tinged with red, especially after it has been cut for a short time. 
Flowering stem 2 to 4 feet high, commonly with branches from the 
axils of the upper leaves. Spathe with acute valves, which are nearly 
wholly herbaceous. Flowers 3 to 4 inches across, the sepals usually 
with purple lines on the claw, which diverge in a small rhomboidal- 
oblong space at the base of the lamina: in vars. « and # this rhom- 
boidal space is of an orange-yellow, and the rest of the lamina bright 
yellow; but in var. y this space is of the same pale yellow colour as 
the rest of the lamina of the sepal. Petals and stigmas pale yellow. 
Anthers purplish-brown. Capsule about 3 inches long, at length pen- 
dulous, the valves ultimately separating at the apex, rolling back and 
scattering the seeds. Seeds about 1 inch across, appearing as if they 
were flattened by the mutual pressure, so that they stand in double 
rows in each cell like rouleaux of coin; testa dry as soon as the seed is 
ripe. 
zi can find no sufficiently distinctive characters to separate the three 
species which Boreau includes under the Linnean I. Pseud-acorus. 
Yellow Water Iris. 
French, Iris faux-acore. German, Wasser Schwertel. 
Everyone must have observed the bright yellow flowers of this pretty plant, 
enlivening the banks of our rivers and reedy ditches in June and July. It is sup- 
posed to have furnished the heralds with the device called the “ fleur-de-lys,” the 
national bearings of France adopted, according to tradition, by Louis VII., and de- 
riving its name from the river Lys, on the borders of Flanders, on the banks of which 
