Iris. IRIDACEiE. 291 



2. Iris Virginica, Linn. Slender Blue Flag. 



Stem terete, slender ; leaves narrowly linear ; flowers beardless ; ovary 3-sided, with pro- 

 minent angles, each side deeply 2-grooved ; capsule triangular, acute at each end — Linn, 

 sp. l.p. 39 ; Muhl. cat. p. 4 ; Torr. fl. \. p. 36. I. prismatica, Pursh, fl. 1. p. 30 ; Bigel. 

 ft. Bost. p. 16 ; Bart. fl. N. Am. 3. t. 85 ; Beck, hot. p. 353. I. gracilis, Bigel. fl,. Bost. 

 (ed. 1.) p. 12. 



Rhizoma horizontal, tuberous. Stem 1^-3 feet high, sonnewhat flexuous, solid. Leaves 

 about one-fourth or one-third of an inch wide. Flowers 1 - 3 at the summit of the stem, 

 blue, veined with yellow in the middle, about as large as those of /. versicolor, but more 

 delicate. Outer segments of the perianth broadly spatulate ; inner ones narrower and more 

 lanceolate. The ovary is, by Bigelow, well compared to " a cylinder with three smaller ones 

 attached to its sides." Capsule distinctly triangular. 



Borders of brackish marshes, Long Island. Fl. June. This plant was sent by Muhlen- 

 berg to Sir James E. Smith, who pronounced it I. Virginica of the Linnaean herbarium. 

 The /. Virginica of most botanists is a mere variety of I. versicolor. 



2. SISYRINCHIUM. Linn. ; Endl. gen. 1220. BLUE-EYED GRASS. 



[From the Greek, tus, a hog, and rhyyichos, a snout ; because it was supposed that hogs were fond of rooting it up.] 



Spalhe 2-leaved, bract-like. Perianth colored, regular ; the limb flat, 6-lobed : tube short. 

 Filaments usually monadelphous below. Style short ; stigmas 3, filiform and involute. 

 Capsule pedicellate, roundish-triangular, membranaceous. — Roots mostly fibrous. Stem 

 ancipital. Leaves equitant. Flowers small. 



J. SisYRiNCHiuM Bermudiana, Linn. Common Blue-eyed Grass. 



Scape winged, simple or somewhat branched above ; leaves narrow and grass-like ; spathe 

 2-valved, the valves mucronate. — Linn. sp. 2. p. 954. 



var. 1 . Stem broadly winged ; valves of the spathe nearly equal, shorter than the flowers. 

 — S. Bermudiana, Michx. fl. 2. p. 33 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 152. S. anceps, " Cavan. diss. 6. 

 p. 345," ex Pursh, fl. p. 31 ; Bigel. fl. Bost. p. 256 ; Torr. fl.\.A2; Beck, hot. p. 354 ; 

 Darlingt. fl. Cest. p. 13. S. gramineum. Lam. enc. 1. p. 403? ; Bot. mag. t. 464. 



var. 2. Stem narrowly winged ; valves of the spathe very unequal (often colored), the outer 

 one longer than the flowers. — S. mucronatum, Miclix. I. c. ; Pursh, I. c. ; Ell. sk. I. c. ; 

 Torr. fl. I. c. ; Beck, I. c. ; Darlingt. I. c. 



Root fibrous. Stems somewhat cespitose, about a foot high, slender, with a winged margin 

 on each side, which is broader in var. 1 ; when branched, there is a linear bracleal leaf at the 

 bifurcation. Leaves mostly radical or nearly so, variable in breadth, but usually about 2 lines 

 wide ; sometimes (particularly in var. 2) almost setaceous. Spalhe 2-leaved, equitant ; the 



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