80 IRIDACEAE. 



nerved, acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base; petioles slender, as long as 

 the blades or somewhat shorter ; staminate flowers in whorled, often panicled 

 spikes, the rachis flexuous, the perianth about 2 mm. broad, the stamens mostly 

 6; pistillate flowers distant in simple spikes; capsule elliptic, 3-winged, 1.5-2 

 cm. long. 



Spontaneous after cultivation, Andros, Eleuthera : Jamaica ; Porto Rico ; 

 Tortola to Trinidad. Generally cultivated in tropical and subtropical countries. 

 Probably native of southeastern Asia. YAM. 



2. RAJANIA L. Sp. PL 1032. 1753. 



Twining vines, with alternate, petioled leaves and small, greenish, dioe- 

 cious, racemose flowers, the staminate ones commonly clustered in the racemes, 

 the pistillate solitary. Staminate flowers with a 6-cleft perianth and 6 stamens 

 with short filaments, the pistil rudimentary or none. Pistillate flowers with 6 

 distinct perianth-segments, the styles 2-cleft; staminodia minute or wanting. 

 Fruit samaroid, 1-seeded, indehiscent, the wing terminal, thin. [Commemorates 

 John Bay, 1628-1705, famous English botanist.] Ten species or more, natives 

 of the West Indies. Type species: Eajania hastata L. 



1. Rajania microphylla Knuth, Enum. 5: 451. 1850. 



Slender, glabrous, often much-branched, 1-2 m. long or longer. Leaves 

 lanceolate to ovate in outline, 2-8 cm. long, acute or acuminate and mucronate 

 at the apex, hastate or cordate at the base, the auricles rounded, the petiole 

 much shorter than the blade; staminate racemes about as long as the leaves; 

 pistillate racemes as long as the leaves or shorter; samaras oblong, obtuse, 

 thin, shining, 8-12 mm. long. 



Rocky plains, pine-lands and interior ridges, Abaco, Great Bahama, Andros, New 

 Providence, Cat Island 1 and Great Bxuma : Cuba. SMALL RAJANIA. WILD YAM. 

 Referred to R. hastata L., by Mrs. Northrop, a species now understood to be 

 restricted to Hispaniola. 



Family 6. IRIDACEAE Lindl. 

 IRIS FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs with narrow equitant 2-ranked leaves and perfect, 

 mostly clustered flowers subtended by bracts. Perianth of 6 segments or 

 6-lobed, its tube adnate to the ovary, the segments or lobes in two series, 

 convolute in .the bud, withering-persistent. Stamens 3, inserted on the 

 perianth opposite its outer series of segments or lobes; filaments filiform, 

 distinct or united; anthers 2-celled, extrorse. Ovary inferior, mostly 3- 

 celled; ovules mostly numerous in each -cell, anatropous; style 3-cleft, its 

 branches sometimes divided. Capsule 3-celled, loculicidally dehiscent, 3- 

 angled or 3-lobed (sometimes 6-lobed), many-seeded. Endosperm fleshy or 

 horny; embryo straight, small. About 57 genera and 1000 species, of wide 

 distribution. 



1. SISYRINCHITJM L. Sp. PI. 954. 1753. 



Perennial mostly tufted slender herbs with fibrous roots from contracted 

 rootstocks, simple or branched 2-winged or 2-edged stems, and linear grass-like 

 leaves. Flowers from terminal spathes consisting of mostly one pair of oppo- 

 site eonduplicate herbaceous bracts enclosing membranous scales; perianth 



