I'RIS SUSIA'NA. 



CHALCEDONIAN IRIS. 

 Class. Order. 



TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 



Natural Order. 



No. 30. 



Peculiar circumstances, or qualities, belonging to 

 plants, which sometimes give rise to their generic 

 names, will rarely be found equally applicable to all 

 the individuals which must necessarily be included 

 in the same genus. The Latin term iris, a rainbow, 

 applies admirably to many of the plants bearing 

 that name, but, certainly, not to the present one, 

 having no such variety of colour. 



Wonderful as were the exertions and penetration 

 of the great Linneus, and eminently skilled as are 

 many of his successors, still the efforts of science 

 are inadequate when applied to the developement of 

 the laws of nature. Her laws are fixed, but so di- 

 versified, so complex, so utterly inexplicable to 

 human understanding, that man, the boasted lord of 

 the creation, must stand abashed by his ignorance, 

 and science herself confess her defects. 



Naturalists have zealously and meritoriously ex- 

 plored her mysteries, and endeavoured to assign to 

 her specific laws, whereby to circumscribe her eco- 

 nomy ; but still before the code could ever be com- 

 pleted, her numerous exceptions to its general en- 

 actments, have baffled the efforts of her legislators. 



