IRIS FAMILY. Iridacew, 



IRIS FAMILY. Iridacece. 



Perennial herbs found in damp or moist situations, 

 having straight straplike leaves and showy, perfect 

 flowers of three and six parts. Commonly cross-ferti- 

 lized by honeybees, bumblebees, and the beelike flies 

 (Syrphidcp). 



A handsome, and decorative plant, with 

 Larger Blue light green, straight, flat leaves, and three- 

 Flag or Fleur- parted perfect flowers blooming one by 



< J e * lls . , one from a green bract or leaflet at 



Iris versicolor , M ° 



Violet-blue the tip of a somewhat irregular stalk. The 



May-July stamens are hidden and inserted at the 



base of the three larger and more showy 

 divisions of the flower, which are beautifully veined 

 with deep violet over a whitish ground tinted at the base 

 with yellow. The stamens are under each of the three 

 straplike divisions of the style (the middle portion of the 

 pistil) which directly overlie the showy purple-veined 

 petals or divisions. Thus the insect, generally a bee, in 

 order to reach the honey, must alight upon the showy 

 petal, crawl beneath the overhanging style-division, and 

 brush past the anther hidden below it, dislodging the 

 yellow pollen in its passage. At the tip of each style- 

 division is the stigma, and upon this some of the pollen 

 is deposited as the bee passes ; but it is really the pollen 

 from some previously visited flower which possesses the 

 greater fertilizing power, therefore the iris is a plant 

 which has especially adapted itself to cross-fertilization. 

 It is, however, robbed of its nectar by the little yellow 

 butterfly (Colias philodice), who goes straight to the base 

 of the flower between the divisions, and reaches the 

 honey with its long tongue, and also, according to the 

 testimony of C. M. Weed, by the tiny skipper butterfly 

 (Hesperia). Fruit a long three-lobed capsule. The name 

 is from *IpiS, the rainbow, in allusion to the prismatic 

 colors of the species. 16-30 inches high. On the wet 

 margins of ponds, and in swamps, from Me., south, and 

 west to Minn., Ark., and Neb. 



62 



