I42 IRIS VERSICOLOR. BLUE FLAG. 



Born to the purple, born to joy and pleasance, 



Thou dost not toil nor spin, 

 But makest glad and radiant with thy presence 



The meadow and the lin. 



The wind blows and uplifts thy drooping banner, 

 And round thee throng and run 



The rushes, the green yeomen of thy manor, 

 The outlaws of the sun. 



The burnished dragon-fly is thy attendant, 



And tilts against the field, 

 And down the listed sunbeam rides resplendent 



With steel-blue mail and shield. 



Thou art the Iris, fair among the fairest, 

 Who, armed with golden rod, 



And winged with celestial azure, bearest 

 The message of some god. 



Thou art the Muse, who, far from crowded cities, 

 Hauntest the sylvan streams, 



Playing on pipes of reed the artless ditties 

 That come to us in dreams." 



The Blue Flag is, indeed, one of the most beautiful of all 

 swamp-loving plants ; and a large tract covered with it, while its 

 flowers are in full bloom, as t often seen in May or June, is one 

 of the most pleasing sights in nature. 



The evident relationship in the poet's mind between our plant 

 and the Lily, and his allusion to the wind which uplifts its " droop- 

 ing banner," naturally lead us to a consideration of the structure 

 of the flower. In this respect the reflexed sepals, or leaves of 

 the outer division of the perianth, first claim the attention of the 

 student, as they are characteristic of many of the species in- 

 cluded in the genus. These sepals turn outward and down- 

 ward, while in the neighboring order of Amaryllidacece the floral 

 parts which answer to them have rather an inward direction. 

 From the true Lilies the Iridacea are widely separated in the 

 natural classification, although the first cause of this wide differ- 



