THE YELLOW IRIS. 



Iris pseudacorus. Nat. Ord., Iridacete. 

 MONG the many beautiful flowers 

 that fringe our rivers, or rest upon 

 their surface, the yellow iris, the 

 plant figured in the present plate, 

 is one of the most beautiful and 

 conspicuous, being- perhaps only 

 less striking than the water-lilies, 

 to which the pre-eminence over 

 all their lovely rivals must surely 

 be accorded. The plant is known 

 botanically as the Iris pseudacorus. 

 Provincially it is often called " segg," 

 a corruption of the word sedge, and 

 both derived from the Anglo-Saxon 

 word segg, a small sword, the name 

 being employed in obvious allusion 

 to the long sword-shaped leaves that 

 rise so boldly from the water. It 

 is also called the fleur-de-lys and the yellow flag, the 

 outer segments of the perianth fluttering in the breeze in 

 a degree that suggested to some early writers the waving 

 of a flag. The resemblance of the blossom to the heraldic 

 fleur-de-lys is too far-fetched to make the name at all 

 appropriate, the device in blazonry being, in fact, so arbi- 

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