324 IBIDACEAE 



Eootstock *4 inch thick or less; dying leaves red-brown; seeds roughly angled, or spherical in 



no. 3. 

 Stem 1*4 to 2 feet high; leaves 3% to 6% lines broad, strongly ribbed; pedicels about 



1 inch long; perianth-tube commonly % inch long 3. /. douglasiana. 



Stem commonly less than 1 foot high; leaves 3 lines broad or less, thickened, ribs less 

 prominent. 



Perianth-tube 1% to 3% inches long; pedicels % inch long 4. I. macrosiplwm. 



Perianth-tube }4 inch long; pedicels % to 3 inches long 5. I. hartwegiL 



1. I. longipetala Herbert. COAST IRIS. Stem very stout, compressed, 1 to 

 2 feet high; leaves 4 to 6 lines broad, equaling or rather exceeding the flower- 

 peduncles, turning gray or yellow-brown when dying; pedicels y% to 3y 2 inches 

 long; bracts scarious at apex, 2,y 2 to 4 inches long, % to 1% inches broad (when 

 spread out) ; sepals white, veined with violet, or violet above, 3 inches long, l 1 /^ 

 to 1% inches broad, narrowed to a short claw, the claw with a very prominent 

 ventral ridge which disappears in the middle of the blade; petals light violet, 

 2% inches long, 6 to 7 lines wide ; capsule narrowed at each end, 2 inches long ; 

 seeds pyriform. 



Wet heavy soil, usually forming dense colonies: coastal region from* San 

 Francisco Bay to Monterey Co. Apr. 



Locs. Point Isabel, Contra Costa Co., Davy; Bald Peak, Berkeley Hills, Hall; South San 

 Francisco, C. F. Baker 348; Monterey, F, Guirado 609. 



Eefs. IRIS LONGIPETALA Herbert; H. & A. Bot. Beech. 395 (1841), type from Cal., 

 Douglas; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 5298 (1862); Jepson, Fl. W. Mid. Cal. 129 (1901); Dykes, The 

 Genus Iris, 89 (1913). 



2. I. missouriensis Nutt. WESTERN BLUE FLAG. Stem 10 to 24 inches high, 

 exceeding the leaves (or a few leaves scarcely longer), nearly naked except at 

 base; rootstock short, thick; leaves 2 to 4 lines wide, turning gray or yellow- 

 brown when dying; bracts usually opposite, commonly membranous and straw- 

 color, or sometimes thin, herbaceous; pedicels (1 or) 2 to 4 inches long; sepals 

 whitish or pale blue, veined with purple and often with a central yellowish spot ; 

 petals pale blue to white, 2 to 2y 2 inches long, the tube about *4 inch long ; capsule 

 11/2 to 3 inches long, grooved trough-wise on each face, cylindric in outline, or 

 narrowed to both apex and base ; seeds globular to pyriform. 



Moist places, meadows or wet flats, high mountains: Sierra Nevada (mostly 

 on the crest and east slope, rare on the west slope), southerly to the San Ber- 

 nardino Mts., east to eastern Inyo Co., north to Modoc Co., thence southwesterly 

 to the inner North Coast Range in Solano Co. in low valleys. Throughout the 

 Great Basin and north to British Columbia and Dakota. July. 



Locs. Bear Valley, San Bernardino Mts., Hall 1024; Bitter Creek, Mt. Pinos, Hall 6512; 

 Silver Canon, White Mts., Jepson 7208; Snow Creek, Mariposa Co., Con g don; Hetch-Hetchy, 

 Jepson 3461; Walker Lake, Mono Co., Jepson 4446; Kennedy Lake, Tuolumne Co., A. L. 

 Grant; Sonora Pass, A. L. Grant 307; Horse Lake, Lassen Co., Jzpson 7811; Hat Creek, Alma 

 Ames; Mt. Bidwell, Manning 56; Egg Lake, M. S. Baker; Goose Lake Valley, B. M. Austin 

 75; upper Fall Eiver Valley, Jepson 5769; Quartz Valley, Siskiyou Co., Butler 1467; Black 

 Butte, Mendocino Co., W. W. Maclci-e; Mendocino Range near Hopland, Jepson 7645; Rock- 

 ville, w. Solano Co., Jepson 8247. 



Refs. IRIS MISSOURIENSIS Nutt. Jour. Acad. Phila. 7:58 (1834), type loc. sources of the 

 Missouri River, Wyeth; Baker, Bot, Mag. t. 6579 (1881); Dykes, Genus Iris, 90 (1913). 



3. I. douglasiana Herbert. MOUNTAIN IRIS. Stem 11,4 to 2 feet high, much 

 exceeded by the (3 to 9 lines wide) basal leaves, these reddish at base; bracts 

 broader and less acuminate than in I. macrosiphon; flowers 2 or 3 in a pair of 

 bracts, mostly cream-color, lavender or azure, often purple or lilac, the pedicels 

 commonly 1 (i/ 2 to 1V4) inches long; perianth-tube usually y 2 sometimes to iy 2 

 inches long ; petals 2 to 3 inches long ; capsule narrowly oblong, sharply angled, 

 1% to 2 inches long; seeds spherical (or obovoid). 



Common in the Redwood belt and on chaparral slopes in the Coast Ranges 

 near the coast from Monterey Co. northwards; rare in the northern Sierra 



