Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 73 



CRESTED DWARF IRIS (Iris cristata). Flowers 

 usually solitary, very delicate in form and of a light 

 violet color; the sepals have a central crested rib of 

 a bright orange color; the smaller petals are also 

 crested. The tube is long and thread-like. Leaves 

 lanceolate, about 5 to 7 in. long; those forming the 

 spathe are ovate-lanceolate. This attractive little Iris 

 is found on rich wooded hillsides and along streams, 

 from Md. and Ind. southwards, flowering in April and 

 May. 



DWARF IRIS (I. Verna) has linear, grass-like leaves 

 covered with a whitish bloom. Sepals not crested but 

 rather downy on their yellowish base; color pale vio- 

 let or even white. Pound on rich wooded hillsides 

 from Pa. southwards. 



NORTHERN NEMASTYLIS (Nemastylis acuta) 

 has a branching stem, at the end of which are one or 

 two flowers growing on slender pedicels from a grass- 

 like spathe. The six parts of the blue or purple 

 perianth spread from 1 to 2 inches. It has long, lin- 

 ear leaves coming from the coated bulb. Found on 

 prairies and barrens from Ky. to Mo., southward. 



BLUE-EYED GRASS (Sisyrinchium angustifolium), 

 as one would suspect from the name, has grass-like 

 leaves and flowers that make one think of bright lit- 

 tle blue eyes as they peep out of the meadow grass 

 in which you find them. 



The Blue-eyed Grasses have recently been separ- 

 ated into thirteen species, differing chiefly in the com- 

 parative lengths of the flower spathes, or the lengths 

 of the leaves as compared to the flower stem. If one 

 wishes to know the exact specific name of the spe- 

 cies he finds, we refer him to the new edition of 

 Gray's Botany (7th Ed.) The six divisions of the 

 flower are regular, violet, with >a yellow or white star- 

 shaped center; each sepal is blunt, with a thorn-like 

 tip. Common from N. B. to B. C. and southwards. 



