594 IRIDACE^E. 



greenish yellow flowers ; it grows in dry chalky places. 

 Malaxis paludosa (Bog Orchis), the smallest British 

 Orchideous plant, 2 4 inches high, grows in spongy 

 bogs, and bears a spike of minute gieeujlowers. Liparis 

 Loeselii (Two-leaved Liparis) is confined to the eastern 

 counties, where it is rarely found in spongy bogs ; it 

 bears a spike of 6 1 2 yellowish flowers on a triangular 

 stalk. Cypripedium Calceolus (Lady's Slipper), distin- 

 guished by its large inflated lip, occurs but rarely in the 

 woods of the north of England, and is pronounced by 

 Sir W. J. Hooker "one of the most beautiful and 

 interesting of our native plants." 



ORD. LXXXIV. lEIDACE^E. IRIS TRIBE. 



Perianth 6-cleft ; stamens 3, rising from the base of 

 the sepals ; ovary inferior, 3-celled ; style 1 ; stigmas 3, 

 often petal-like ; capsule 3-celled, 3-valved ; seeds nume- 

 rous. Principally herbaceous plants with tuberous or 

 fibrous roots, long, and often sword-shaped, sheathing 

 leaves, and showy flowers, which seldom last a long 

 time. Chiefly natives of warm and temperate regions, 

 and most abundant at the Cape of Good Hope, where, 

 at the time of its discovery by the Portuguese, the 

 natives mainly supported themselves on the roots of 

 the plants of this tribe, together with such shell- fish as 

 were left on shore by the receding tide. Iris, Crocus, 

 Ixia, and Gladiolus are favourite garden flowers ; Iris 

 Pseud-dcorus (Yellow Iris, or Flag) is one of our most 

 showy marsh plants. Few species are used in the arts 

 or sciences ^ the roots of Iris Florentina afford Orris- 

 root, which, when dried, has a perfume resembling that 

 of Violets, and is used as an ingredient in tooth-powder ; 

 the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus^ were anciently much 

 prized as a dye, and are still employed for the same 

 purpose, as well as in medicine and cookery ; and the 



