476 



IRfDE^ 



bright scarlet seeds remain attached to the plant all through the 



winter. — Fl. May — August. Perennial. 



2. /. Pseiiddcorus (Corn Flag, 

 Yellow Iris). — A stout aquatic plant 

 with creeping, acrid rhizomes ; round 

 stem, 2 — 5 feet high ; sword-shaped 

 leaves ; and large, handsome yellow 

 flowers with unfringed sepals. — 

 Marshes and river-banks ; common. 

 The rhizome yields a black dye, and 

 the seeds, it is said, may be roasted 

 and used as a substitute for coffee. — 

 Fl. May — August. Perenraal. 



3.* /. tuber osa, with tubers, 4- 

 angled leaves, and solitary purple 

 flozvers, found at Penzance and at 

 Cork, is one of several cultivated 

 species occasionally found apparently 

 wild. 



*2. Crocus. — Herbaceous plants 

 with fleshy corms ; no aerial stem; 

 linear, radical leaves, white beneath, 

 with revolute edges; and generally 

 solitary, large, funnel-shaped flowers 

 with a long perianth-tube; style 

 slender; stigmatic lobes 3, widening 

 upwards ; capsule pedicellate. 

 (Name from the Greek krokos, 

 saffron, and that from kroke, a 

 thread.) Several species are natural- 

 ised in various parts of England, 

 such as C. officinalis, the Purple 

 Spring Crocus, in meadows at Not- 

 tingham and elsewhere, flowering in 

 March and April; but the only 

 species with any claim to be con- 

 sidered indigenous is C. nudiflorus 

 (Naked-flowered Crocus), with leaves 

 appearing in March, and solitary, 

 purple flowers in September and 

 October, occurring in meadows in the Midland counties. This 

 genus must not be confused with the Colchicums which are mis- 

 lead] ngly called Autumn Crocuses or Meadow Saffrons, but belong 

 to the Liliaceae, having 6 stamens. 



glXdiolus ILLYRICUS. 



