IRIS FAMILY. 415 



2. LOPHIOLA. (Greek: small crest, referring to a woolly tuft near 

 tliu base of the perianth lobes.) 2/ 



L. atirea, Ker. Stem halless and woolly above, creeping at the base, 

 2'^ high ; leaves liiu'ar and nearly smooth ; flowers dingy yellow inside, 

 in a crowded cyme. I'inu barrens, N. J., «. 



3. ALETRIS, COLICKOOT, STAR GRASS. (Name Greek, allud- 

 ing to the apparent mealiness of the flowers.) Stemless, the flowers in 

 a wand-like raceme ; scape 2"-o° high, arising from a cluster of lance- 

 olate leaves. 21 



A. farin6sa, Linn. Flowers white, oblong-tubular, the perianth lobes 

 lance-oblong. Woods, Mass. to Minn., and S. 



A. atirea, Walt. Flowers yellow and shorter, bell-shaped, the lobes 

 short-ovate. Barrens, N. J., S. 



CXVI. IRIDACEiE, IRIS FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs with bulbons, cormous (Lessons, Figs. 105, 

 lOG), or tuberous (sometimes fibrous) roots, distinguished by 

 the equitant (Lessons, Figs, 164, 165), erect, 2-ranked leaves, 

 and the 3 stamens with anthers facing outwards. Flowers per- 

 fect and showy, colored, mostly from a spathe of two or more 

 leaves or bracts ; the tube of the perianth coherent Avith the 

 3-celled ovary and often prolonged beyond it, its divisions 6 in 

 two sets (answering to sepals and petals), each convolute in 

 the bud. Style 1-, or rarely 3-cleft ; stigmas 3^ opposite the 3 

 stamens and the outer divisions of the perianth. Fruit a 3- 

 celled and many-seeded pod. (Lessons, Figs. 395, 396.) 



* Spathe generaUy 2- or more flowered {\ -flowered in some Irises), terminal or pedun- 

 culate; flowers generally stalked in the spathe. 



■*- Perianth of 3 outer recurving, and 3 inner commnnb/ smaller erect or incurving 

 divisions; stigmas, or more proi^erly lobes of the style, petal-like. 



1. irJS. Flowers with tube either slijjhtly or much prolonpred beyond the ovary, in the 



latter case coherent also with the style. Stamens under the overarching branches of 

 the style ; anthers linear or oblonjr, fixed by the base. The real stijrma is a shelf or 

 short lip on the lower face of the petal-like branch of the style, only \ts inner surface 

 stiprmatic. Pod 3-6-angled. Roots rhizomatous or tuberous. 



4- •«- Perianth deeply cleft or parted into fi widely spreading divisions ; stamens mona- 

 delphous to the top ; style long ; stigmas S or G, thread like ; flowers opening in 

 sunshine and but once for afeio hours. 



2. TIGRIDIA. From a conn with some bard brittle coatinjr. Leaves lanceolate, larpe, 



very much i>Iaited. Three outer divisions of the i)erianth very large and with a con- 

 cave base ; the other 8 very much smaller and fiddle-shaped. Stigmas 3, each 

 2-cleft. 

 8. SISYltlNCIIIUM. Root mostly fibrous. Leaves grass-like. Divisions of the wheel- 

 shaped flower all alike. Stigmas 8, simple. 



