73 



Charact. Bulb small, with stiff membranous coats. Leaf linear, 

 very channelled, ribbed on outside. Stem about a foot high, almost 

 entirely hidden, except at the top, by three or four clasping leaves, 

 which, filiform and pointed above, are dilated at the base, where they 

 clasp the stem. Flower single, from two to three inches across. 

 Tube nearly two inches long, but almost wholly hidden by the 

 persistently green, somewhat keeled spathe-valves. Fall spreading 

 horizontally or gently arched downwards, so that the perianth does 

 not form a funnel at all. Claw of 

 fall narrow, strap-shaped, sud- 

 denly expanding, after a slight 

 constriction, into a rounded oval 

 blade much broader than itself. 

 Standard erect, obovate, relatively 

 broad. Style narrow, lying close 

 down on the claw of the fall, with 

 crests which seem to vary, being 

 sometimes triangular, sometimes 

 very large and quadrate. The 

 blade of the fall a rich red-purple, 

 except in the centre, where is 

 a narrow oval patch of bright 

 orange, continued backwards 

 some way along the claw. On 

 this * ' signal " patch are a num- 

 ber of thin yellow hairs forming 

 almost a beard, which reaches 

 nearly to the front end of the 

 patch. Standards purple above, 

 reddish below. Styles of a red- 

 purple, the crests being darker 

 and veined. Capsule rounded, 

 trigonal, with deeply grooved 

 sides, an inch or more in length. 



Time. June. 



Hab. Spain, Gerez Mountains. 



FIG. 48. IRIS BOISSIERI. 



16. I. TUBEROSA. Linn. Sp. PL 58 ; Thunberg, Diss. No. 43. 

 (From tuber-like root.) 



f Syn. Hermodactylus tuberosus (Salisbury, Trans. Hort. Soc 

 i. 304). The velvet Flower-de-luce of Parkinson. 



Fig. Bot. Mag. 531 ; Redout^, Lit. t. 48 ; Sibthorp and Smith, 

 Flor. Gruec. t. 41 ; Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. 2nd ser. t. 146 ; Reichen- 

 bach, Ic. Fl. Germ. t. 348, fig. 476 ; Fl. des Serres, t. 1083. 



Charact. Rootstock a tuber, which when full-grown is 

 branched. Leaf often very long, four-sided, with a horny point not 



