636 IRIDACE 2 SISYRINCHIUM 
S. occidentale Bicknell l. c. 447. Glaucescent to pale glaucous-green, 
usually with a vellowish tinge: stems 7-12 inches high, stiff and erect, 
constricted just below the spathe: leaves firm and erect, very acute, much 
shorter than the stems, a line wide: spathes erect or slightly deflexed, the 
bracts often rather thin, the outer one mostly straight, the inner one more 
or less convex in outline; outer bract 1-2 inches long, longer than the inner 
one, attenuate, acute, hyaline-margined below: flowers 3-6, deep violet- 
blue, on erect exserted pedicels: capsule subglobose, about 3 lines high. 
Idaho to Nevada and N. Dakota. 
S. septentrionale Bicknell 1. c. 452. Pale and giaucescent: stems 
5-12 inches high growing in smal! tufts: leaves 5-8 inches long, stiff and 
erect, less than a line wide, mostly setaceous: spathes small, often partly 
double, one or more flowers arising from between the short proper spathes 
and the closely subtending slenderly ‘prolonged outer bract; inner bract 
10-12 lines long, mostly attenuate and acute; the outer bract 1-2 inches 
long: flowers very small, apparently not more than 3 or 4, on erect pedicels 
usually shorter than the inner bract: segments of the perianth 3-5 lines 
long, acuminate and short-aristate, not retuse, pale rose or violet: capsule 
subglobose, 2-3 lines long. Eastern Washington and Idaho to Assiniboia. 
S. Idahoense Bicknell 1. c. 445. Pale-green and glaucous: stems 10- 
18 inches high straight and erect, or somewhat flexuously curved, often 
twisted, mostly simple: leaves 5-15 inches high, varying from thin and 
somewhat lax to firm and closely erect, 1-2 lines wide, attenuate to some- 
what abruptly acuje: spathes often deflexed, long and narrow, the keel of 
one or both often serrulate or hispidulous; outer one 14g-3 inches long, 
commonly 4-% longer than the inner one: flowers 3-6, on erect pedicels, 
deep violet-blue with rather small yellow eye: segments of the perianth 
7-10 lines long: ovary glandular-puberulent: capsule globose or ovoid, 2-3 
lines high. Washington to Idaho and California. 
S. sarmentosa Suksdorf in Herb. Greene Eryth. iii, 121. Dull green 
and glaucescent, growing in dense tufts: stems very slender, erect or as- — 
cending, 6-10 inches high, simple or with a leaf and branch or a tuft of 
leaves and branches near the top: leaves very narrow, equalling or shorter 
than the stems, attenuate, acute: spathes erect, the bracts very unequal, 
the outer one 144-3 inches long, acuminate, rather abruptly acute. the in- 
ner one 6-18 lines long: flowers 1-3, bright blue: segments of the perianth 
4-5 lines long, not emarginate but abruptly contracted into the short aris- 
tate tip: capsule thin-walled, subglobose, 2-3 lines high. Borders of wet 
meadows, Skamania Co. Washington. 
* * Scapes with a solitary sessile spathe: filaments united only at 
base: anthers linear, sagittate. 
+  Scapes 2-edged: flowers yellow: style very deeply cleft. 
S. Californicum Ait. f. Hort Kew. iv, 135. Scapes broadly winged, 
6-15 inches high: leaves much shorter than the scapes, 2-3 lines wide: 
bracts of the spathe more or less unequal, the longer about equalling the 
pedicels: flowers 3-7, bright yellow; segments of the perianth 4-6 lines 
long, 5-7-nerved, obtuse or acutish : antbers 14 lines long, about equalling 
the filaments: style cleft to below the middle, the linear branches as long 
as the anthers: capsule obovate-oblong, 4 lines long: seeds half a line in 
diameter. Along the coast, Vancouver Island to California, in various 
forme. 
+ + §capes compressed but not margined: flowers large, purple: 
style cleft at the apex. 
S. grandiflorum Dougl. Lindl. Bot. Reg. xvi, t. 1364. Glabrous and 
bright green: scapes slender, 4-12 inches high, growing in dense tufts or 
