I04 IRIS MISSOURIENSIS. ROCKY MOUNTAIN IRIS. 



While sending our specimens to Mr. Watson, the drawing 

 was also forwarded, of which he kindly says: " The leaves should 

 be narrower (they are usually two to three lines broad — rarely 

 more) and a paler glaucous green. It should show a pair of 

 closely approximate bracts, acuminate, and differing from those 

 of our other allied species in being thin, pale and scariously mar- 

 gined, becoming wholly scarious. The petals (standards as 

 Baker calls them) should be erect to the tips or nearly so. The 

 flower of Iris is a very difficult thing to figure if you wish to give 

 more than a general idea of it, and very few of them in the 

 books are really satisfactory botanically. This of yours is on the 

 whole as good as could be expected, with the one exception 

 noted." 



Our plant had but the one scape, and the endeavor to give the 

 manner in which the second bud pushes from one side of the 

 bracts prevented the showing of the double character. But to 

 correct the deficiency noted by Mr. Watson, we have since 

 added from a dried scape (Fig. 5), showing the two bracts 

 referred to at B. In regard to the width of the leaves and tint, 

 we may say that they are faithful representations of nature at the 

 time the drawing was made ; but the root-stock as seen in our 

 picture is very strong and vigorous. No leaves are wider than 

 those represented, most are longer and slenderer, as suggested 

 by Mr. Watson. As seen in our plate, the flowers appear 

 sessile; but as they mature, as the writer has seen them in their 

 native places of growth, only one fruit seems to come to perfec- 

 tion, and that one is on a pedicel of perhaps two inches long. 



Explanations of the Plate. — i. Root-stock of last year. 2. Terminal growth of root-stock 

 of preceding year. 3. Sub-terminal bud of last year, bearing the flower of the present sea- 

 son. 4. Scape, showing the bursting of the second flower from the bracts. 5. The scape 

 at maturity not having perfected seed, but showing at B the two distinct bracts. 



