IRIS FAMILY IRIDACEAE 
WHITE BLUE-EYED GRASS 
Sisyrinchium albidum Raf. 
The White Blue-eyed Grass, common in open grassy places 
from North Carolina to Ohio, Ontario and Wisconsin, south 
to Arkansas and Mississippi, blooms from April to June. It 
produces a large number of grasslike basal leaves 
and several flattened stems 3-24 inches high. 
The white or pale blue flowers are produced in 
an umbel between 2 bracts that form a sort of 
spathe. The perianth is composed of 6 similar 
parts, and the 6 stamens have their filaments 
united more than halfway to the top. The ovary, 
which is inferior, is 3-lobed, and the style is also. 
The fruit is a capsule which is pale straw color 
when mature. 
The Dark Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium angusti- 
folium Mill., is quite similar to the white species but 
the flowers are deep violet-blue and the capsules are 
dull brown, sometimes tinged with purple. It usually 
blooms a little later, from May to July. 
The Large Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium grami- 
neum Curtis, grows 1-2 feet high in wet meadows and 
deep woods from New Hampshire to Minnesota and 
southwest. Its 2-4 large, deep blue flowers bloom 
in April and June. They are borne at the ends of 2 
unequal branches which terminate the stem in the 
axil of the solitary grasslike stem leaf. Below are 
several basal leaves, with roughened edges, about 
7 ami inch wide and nearly as long as the flower 
stalk. 
A WHITE IRIS 
Tall and clothed in samite, 
Chaste and pure, 
In smooth armor— 
Your head held high 
In its helmet 
Of silver: 
Jean D’Arc riding 
Among the sword blades! 
Has spring for you 
Wrought visions, 
As it did for her 
In a garden? 
PAULINE B. BARRINGTON 
66 
