IRIDACEAE. 



85 



probably grow well in southern Florida. Plants taken to the New York 

 Botanical Garden flowered freely under glass, and from one of these was made 

 Miss Eaton's painting, reproduced as a frontispiece for this book. 



2. FREESEA Eckl. 

 Herbs with fibrous-coated corms, narrow leaves and showy yellow or white 

 flowers in unilateral spikes, each flower subtended by 2 spathe-like bracts. 

 Perianth with a curved funnelform tube and an expanded slightly 2-lobed limb, 

 its somewhat unequal segments oblong; stamens borne on the perianth-throat; 

 filaments filiform; anthers linear, sagittate. Ovary 3-celled, many-ovuled; 

 style filiform, its short branches 2-cleft. Capsule oblong, loculicidally 3-valved. 

 Seeds turgid. [Name not explained.] A monotypic South African genus. 



1. Freesea refracta (Jacq.) Klatt. 



Freesea. (Fig. 1(38.) Corm ovoid to 

 subglobose, 1" long or more. Leaves 

 4'-10' long, mostly basal, about 3" 

 wide, acute; stem l°-li° high, flexuous, 

 simple or few-branched; spike spread- 

 ing nearly at right angles, 2'-4' long, 

 several-flowered, bracts oblong-lanceo- 

 late, 8" long or less; perianth I'-l*' 

 long, the limb much shorter than the 

 tube. [Gladiolus refractus Jacq.] 



In fields, spontaneous or persistent 

 after cultivation. Native of South Africa. 

 Flowers in spring. Races differ in size and 

 color of the flowers. 



Gladiolus species, Corn-flag, Gla- 

 DiOLius, grown in gardens, in several 

 races, flower in spring and summer; 

 the style-branches are undivided. 



Iris germanica L., Fleur de Lis, 

 grown in gardens, flowers in spring, and 

 other species of Iris are occasionally 

 cultivated. Jones records /. virginica 

 L., North American, and I. violacea 

 Sweet, of southern Europe. 



Antholyza aethiopica L., South 

 African, with foliage similar to that of Gladiolus, the reddish-yellow flowers 

 with a curved tube, is commonly grown as a garden flower. 



Tigridia Pavonia (L. f.) Ker., Tiger-flower, Central American, bulbous, 

 with linear leaves often 1° long, tapering at each end, simple stems about 2° 

 high, bearing few or solitary yellow or orange, usually mottled flowers 4'-6' 

 broad, the perianth-segments of two dissimilar series of 3 each, the larger ones 

 spreading, is occasionally grown in flower-gardens. [Ferraria Pavonia L. f.] 



Tritonia crocosmaeflora Lemoine, Moxtbrietia, South African, of hy- 

 brid origin, grown in gardens, is a bulbous plant 3°-4° high, with narrowly 

 linear leaves about 1° long, and showy orange flowers, sessile in terminal pan- 

 icles, its perianth-segments narrowly oblong. 



A scarlet-flowered species of Ixia, with linear leaves about 8' long and 21" 

 wide, the very slender corolla-tube 1' long, the corolla-limb about *' wide, was 

 seen growing in the lawn at Norwood in 1914. Ixias are natives of South 

 Africa. 



