IEIS WATEE FLAG. 279 



the Fleur de Lis which Louis VII. adopted as his heraldic 

 emblem when he set out on the Crusade ; it is still the flower 

 of France. I remember a rather ludicrous mistake, arising 

 from a confusion of terms and significations, when we were 

 visiting the Staubbach waterfall in Switzerland. The torrent 

 falls over a beetling precipice of an immense height, and 

 spreads into a sheet of spray ere it reaches the ground. Up 

 to mid-day the rays of the sun fall upon this misty cloud, and 

 paint it with rainbow tints. We were a little delayed upon the 

 road, and an intelligent little girl of our party betrayed great 

 impatience. I inquired the cause, and she replied, " Oh, if you 

 don't get there soon we shall not see the great Water Lily ! I 

 have read in a book called ' Leila,' that there is a Lily by the 

 Staubbach so large that she stood under it, and it can't be seen 

 after twelve o'clock." "Are you sure the book did not say 

 Iris?" I inquired. "I believe it did," was the reply; "but 

 is not the Iris a Lily ?" The poor child was sadly disappointed 

 to find that her expected Lily was but a kind of a Rainbow. 

 Imaginative people charge the poor Iris with the changeable - 

 ness of its prototypes, and the poet Locke is one of these 



" The ever-changeful Iris there 

 I charge thee not to bring !" 



The root of a Florentine Iris yields the perfume which we 

 call Orris-root. In Britain we have only two wild species of 

 Iris, both of which Lave three stamens and one stigma, and the 

 corolla is in six petals. 



A The Yellow Iris or Water Flag (Iris pseudacorus, Plate XVI.\ 

 I Jig. 5), is very common in swampy places, and the margin of J 

 / ponds and rivers. It is a stately plant, with sword-shaped/ 

 1 glaucous leaves, and well deserves its French name "La Flambe 

 aquatique." Macgillivray states that the root is recommended 

 as a cure for toothache, and that it is used for dyeing black in 

 the Hebrides. Dr. George Johnstone says the berries are a 

 good substitute for coffee. 

 I have the second species, politely called the Stinking Iris 



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