306 



THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



:i;i. Flowers in shades of blue (sometimes varying to icJiife). 

 I. versicolor, Linn. Common wild blue flag. Two to 3 ft., stout: leaves 

 ^-in. wide, flat: flowers about 3 in. long, short-stalked, violet-blue, the tube 

 shorter than the ovary, the inner petals small 

 and the outer ones with no hairs. Swamps. 



I. laevigata, Fisch. & Mey. (/. Kcempferi, 

 8ieb.). Japan iris. Two to 3 feet, the stem 

 much overtopping the thin, broad leaves : flowers 



437. Iris Germanica. 438. Crocus vernus. 439. Freesia refracta. 



large (sometimes several inches across), flat, the inner lobes spreading, the 

 outer ones very large and rounded, with no hairs or crests : color mostly in 

 shades of blue and purple. Japan; now one of the choicest of garden irises. 

 I. Germdnica, Linn. Common blue flag of gardens (sometimes runs wild). 

 Fig. 437. Two to 3 feet, with long sword-shaped leaves: flowers few or 

 several to each stem, about 3 to 4 in. across, the drooping outer segments 

 with yellow hairs, the inner segments erect and arching inwards. Europe. 



2. CROCUS. Crocus. 



Small, stemless plant-, the long-tubed flowers and the grass-like leaves 

 arising directly from the coated corm : flowers with the G obovate divisions 

 all alike and erect-spreading or the inner ones a little the smaller, opening 

 only in sunshine. The following, from Europe, blooms in earliest spring. 



C. vernus, Linn. Common crocus. Fig. 438. Leaves 2-4 to each flower, 

 glaucous on the under side: flower rising little above the ground; color in 

 shades of lilac and variously striped, sometimes white. 



3. SISYRlNCHIUM. Blue-eyed Grass. 



Low, slender, perennial herhs with grass-like, linear, or lanceolate 

 leaves and fibrous roots: scapes or stems erect, compressed, 2-edged or 

 winged, often branched: flowers small, usually blue or bluish, soon wither- 

 ing, in terminal 2-5-flowered umbels in a 2-leaved spathe: perianth seg- 

 ments spreading, bristle-pointed: stamens 3, monadelphous: style 1 long; 

 stigmas very slender; ovary 3-celled. 



S. angustifdlium, Mill. Grassy plants in tufts or clumps: scape 4 in. to 1 

 ft., spathe single, sessile: flowers blue to purple, "arely white; petals notched 

 and mucrouate. In moist meadows, among grass. Summer. Common. 



