IRIDACEAE IRIS FAMILY 
LARGER BLUE FLAG. FLEUR DE LIS 
Iris versicolor L. 
To the Iris family belong the cultivated Crocuses 
which so delight us in early spring. Here also belongs 
the Blackberry Lily which is commonly cultivated and 
which has escaped in some places to 
roadsides and woods. 
The Larger Blue Flag or Fleur de Lis 
is found in wet places throughout the 
eastern half of the United States and 
Canada, and blooms from 
May to July. It is a peren- 
nial with a stout, irregularly Zi 
branched underground stem € 
that gives rise to the flower- 
ing stalk and a compact : 
cluster of bladelike leaves, wl 
nearly vertical and 1-2 feet bei 
long. The stems are leafy and 1-3 
feet high. 
The splendor of this flower aptly 
suggests its name, taken from the Greek 
meaning rainbow. The 3 recurved 
sepals and 3 upright petals are violet- 
blue with purple veins and are varie- 
gated toward the base with green, 
yellow and white. The style, colored 
like the rest of the flower, is divided into 
3 branches which arch over the sepals 
and might easily be mistaken for petals. 
The end of each of these branches is turned back to form a crest. 
Underneath this crest is a thin lip or shelf the upper surface of 
which is covered with minute hairs and a sticky secretion. This 
is the stigma. Curved under these branches of the style are 
the 3 stamens, each with an anther as long as the filament that 
bears it. The ovary is below the other parts of the flower and 
develops into a 3-celled capsule with 2 rows of seeds in each cell. 
I saw no planted things, 
But white and purple butterflies 
Tied down with silken strings. 
Iris Flowers—Mary MCNEIL FENOLLOSA 
65 
