IRI 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



IRI 



759 



to three or four ounces, but must be largely diluted \vilh 

 watery or vinous liquors, to prevent its inflaming the throat. 

 The remarkable differences in the dose, as directed by dif- 

 ferent practitioners, appear to arise from this circumstance, 

 that some have employed the juice in the recent turbid state, 

 loaded with the acrimonious cathartic matter of the root, 

 while others used such as had been depurated by settling, 

 and which had deposited its more active and acrimonious 

 particles. Hill says, two ounces of it bruised, and infused 

 four or five hours in, a quarter of a pint of strong beer, is a 

 strong purge, of great efficacy in dropsical complaints. The 

 root, suspended in wine and beer, prevents those liquors from 

 becoming stale, and communicates a very pleasant taste and 

 smell to the wine. The juice is also sometimes used as a 

 cosmetic, and for the removal of freckles from the skin. A 

 most beautiful paint or colour is prepared from the flowers, 

 in the following manner ; they are gathered before quite 

 open, and bruised in a stone mortar with a wooden pestle, 

 then put into a glass, and placed for some days in a cellar, 

 or other moist place ; in about a fortnight, the mass, which 

 will have become liquid, is to be set over the fire in a glass 

 pot, till about a third part is evaporated ; then more or less 

 roche-alum is to be added, till it becomes clear, and acquires 

 a fine blue colour ; it may then be put into shells, and used 

 as a water-colour. 



10. IrisLurida; Dingy Iris. Bearded: stem higher than 

 the leaves, and many-flowered ; outer petals revolute, inner 

 from erect bent in, somewhat waved, and slightly emarginate; 

 stigmas dirty yellow, pale purplish above. This plant may 

 be a variety of the next species, but is scentless. It flowers 

 in April. Native of the south of Europe. 



11. Iris Sambucina ; Elder-scented Iris. Bearded : leaves 

 ensiform, smooth, erect, shorter than the many-flowered 

 scape; petals bent down flat. It differs from the ninth 

 species, in having the larger petals of a deep violet colour, 

 and subemarginate ; the smaller petals emarginate, and of a 

 deeper blue colour. It derives its trivial name from the 

 smell of the flowers, which is very like that of Elder in bloom. 

 They appear at the end of May. Native of the south of 

 Europe. 



12. Iris Squalens ; Brown-flowered Iris. Bearded : leaves 

 ensiform, smooth, erect, shorter than the many-flowered 

 scape; petals bent down and folded back. The roots of this 

 species are very thick and fleshy, divided into joints, spread- 

 ing just under the surface of the ground ; they are of a 

 brownish colour on their outside, but white within ; the stalks 

 divide into three branches, each of which produces two or 

 three flowers, one above another, at distances, each enclosed 

 in a sheath ; they have three large violet-coloured petals, 

 which turn backwards, and are called falls; these have 

 beards near an inch long on their midrib towards their base, 

 and have a short arched petal which covers the beard, with 

 three broad erect petals of the same colour, called standards. 

 Capsule three-cornered, filled with large compressed seeds. 

 It flowers in June, and ripens seed in August. There is a 

 variety with blue standards, and purple falls ; and one with 

 pale purple standards, another with white, and a third with 

 a smaller flower ; but these are accidental varieties, which 

 have come from seeds. Native of the south of Europe. 



13. Iris Compressa; Flat-stalked Iris. Bearded: leaves 

 ensiform. smooth ; scape panicled, compressed. Stem frutes- 

 cent, compressed, smooth, branching dichotomously, jointed, 

 decumbent; branches alternate, elongated, like the scape, 

 one-flowered ; corolla white ; claws of the larger petals a little 

 widened, bearded within, clotted with yellow; a yellow spot 

 in the flexure ; border blunt. Native of South Africa. 



14. Iris Cristata ; Crested Iris. Bearded: beard crested ; 

 stem mostly one-flowered, the length of the leaves ; germina 

 three-cornered ; petals almost equal. Root tuberous, creep- 

 ing; stems several, short, inclining upwards, compressed, 

 leafy ; flower generally solitary, a little shorter than the 

 leaves, erect, of a pale purplish blue ; outer petals drooping, 

 obtuse, blue, with deeper blue spots, crested in the place of 

 the beard with three longitudinal, elevated, waved ribs, 

 variegated with orange and yellow. It flowers in May. 

 Native of North America. 



15. Iris Dichotoma; Forked Iris. Bearded: leaves ensi- 

 form, smooth ; stem panicled, round. Branches simple, 

 elongated, naked; flowers on long peduncles, pale purple, 

 the smallest of the genus. It flowers in August, and is a 

 native of Siberia. 



** Leaves linear. 



16. Iris Tripetala; Tkree-petalled Iris. Bearded: leaf 

 linear, longer than the one-flowered scape; petals alternate, 

 awl-shaped. Bulb striated, globular, fibrilled ; flower termi- 

 nating, solitary ; corolla blue, with a yellow joint ; claws of 

 the larger petals broader, linear, dotted on the inside with 

 blue, having a nectareous hollow at the base. Native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, near Cape Town, and Picketberg, &c. 



17. Iris Tricuspis ; Trifid-petalled Iris. Bearded: leaf 

 linear, longer than the subbiflorous scape, alternate; petals 

 trifid. Bulb the size of a hazel nut; border of the larger 

 petals white, suborbiculate, with a point: it varies much in 

 the shape and colour of the larger petals, and very much in 

 the colours, blue, purple, yellow, white, and spotted. Native 

 of the Cape, on the hills below Duyvelsberg, in Swartland, 

 and near Berg-riviere. Mr. Curtis describes it as a small 

 delicate Iris, about a foot and a half high, with very. narrow 

 leaves, bearing on the top of the stalk cue, or at most two 

 flowers ; three of the petals are large and white, with a bril- 

 liant blue spot at the base of each, edged on the outer side 

 with deep purple : the delicacy of the flower, and the eye- 

 like spot at the base of the three petals, render it, he says, 

 one of the most striking plants of the genus. The root of the 

 plant which he describes came from Holland. 



18. Iris Plumaria; Feathered Iris. Bearded: leaves 

 linear; scapes many-flowered; stigmas setaceous, multifid. 

 Petals connate at the base ; claws of the larger ones obovate, 

 greenish on the outside, with a thinner blue edge, pale blue 

 within. Native of the Cape, below Duyvelsberg. 



"** Beardless. Leaves ensiform. 



19. Iris Xiphium ; Bulbose-rooted Iris. Beardless : leaves 

 ensiform, channelled, awl-shaped, shorter than the two-flow- 

 ered scape. The flowers are blue, with emarginate petals. 

 Miller makes two distinct species ; which Martyn gives as 

 varieties : there are many varieties of these ; the most com- 

 mon colour is blue, deeper or lighter; but it is also yellow, 

 white, blue with white or yellow falls, violet-coloured with, 

 blue falls, and variegated. Native of the south of Europe; 

 It was discovered by the duchess dowager of Portland, on the 

 river side, near Fladbury, in Worcestershire. This, and the 

 thirtieth species, are propagated by oftsets from the roots. 

 The bulbs of this species need not be taken up oftener than 

 every other year; and of the latter every third year; this 

 should be done soon after their leaves decay, to prevent 

 them from sending out fresh fibres ; nor should they be kept 

 above a month out of the ground, which would cause them 

 to shrink, and flower weakly in the ensuing year. They may 

 be propagated from seeds in the same way as the Hyacinth : 

 indeed, the varieties of this species can only be obtained 

 that way ; the thirtieth does not vary even from seeds, 



