Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 71 



IRIS FAMILY (Iridaceae). 



This family is composed of perennial herbs grow- 

 ing in moist places and having long linear or sword- 

 shaped leaves and large showy flowers. Iris is nam- 

 ed from the Greek, meaning rainbow and it certain- 

 ly is no misnomer as applied to the Blue Flag or Iris 

 which is the most common of the genus. Small in- 

 deed is the pond-hole that somewhere around its 

 edge does not have a little colony of the beautiful 

 "Fleur-de-lis". The perpetuation of this species in 

 healthy condition is insured because of the formation 

 of the flower, which is such that self-pollenization is 

 practically impossible. The stamens are directly un- 

 der the strap-like divisions of the style and the stig- 

 ma is on the upper surface at the rolled-up tip. Bees 

 are the most frequent visitors and the most valu- 

 able ones for the plants. 



LARGER BLUE FLAG; BLUE IRIS; FLEUR-DE- 

 LIS (Iris versicolor). Flower solitary, from a green 

 spathe at the end of a long peduncle; sepals, neither 

 bearded nor crested, but broad, violet and handsome- 

 ly veined; petals erect, flat and spatulate. Leaves 

 sword-shaped, glaucus-green, folded into a flat cluster 

 at the base. Very common from Newfoundland to 

 Manitoba and southwards, flowering from May to 

 July. 



SLENDER BLUE FLAG (Iris prismatica) is more 

 slender in all its parts; narrow leaves, slender stem 

 and very slender pedicels. Found in marshes near 

 the coast from N. B. to Ga. 



BLACKBERRY LILY (Belamcanda chinensis) CHI- 

 NESE) has the sepals and petals of equal size and 

 colored alike; a golden-orange, thickly speckled with 

 brownish purple. Stem branching and with a loose 

 cluster of six to twelve buds or blossoms. Fruit black- 

 berry-like, studded with black seeds. An escape from 

 gardens. 



