274 ORCHIDE.E. [Crocus. 



shaped ; perianth beardless, its inner segments spreading, 

 about as lar^e as the stigmas ; stem one-angled. Br. Fl. 1 . 

 p. 18. E. FL v. i. p. 49. E. Bot. t. 596. 



Woods, ditch-banks, and pastures. Frequent in the Counties of 

 Dublin and Wicklow. Found at Kilgobbin, and in fields near Tem- 

 pleogue. On the banks of the Barrow near Portarlington ; Rev. Mr. 

 Halpin. FL May. 1. Flowers much smaller than the last, dull 

 livid purple. The leaves, when bruised, yield a disagreeable smell, 

 which has been compared to roast-beef, whence its common name, 

 Roast-beef plant. It appears to grow principally in the eastern parts 

 of the country. The Iris tuberosa or Snake 's-head Iris, which has 

 tetragonal leaves, has been observed by Mr. Drummond and others 

 growing on a dry ditch-bank, in a lane near the Cork Botanic Garden, 

 to which it had not been introduced previously to his finding it ; but 

 as it is a native of the Levant, it can scarcely be considered as indige- 

 nous to Ireland. 



2. CROCUS. Linn. Crocus. 



Perianth coloured ; tube very long ; limb cut into six equal seg- 

 ments. Stigmas 3-lobed, plaited. Name, from /c/?o/ciy, a thread 

 or filament, from the appearance of the saffron of the shops, 

 which is the dried stigmas of Crocus sativus. 



Triandria. Monogynia. 



1. C. vernus, Willd. Purple Spring Crocus. Stigma erect, 

 within the flower, cut into three jagged wedge-shaped lobes. 

 Br. FL 1. p. 17. E. FL v. i. p. 46. E. Bot. t. 344. 



Meadows and fields, naturalized. Plentiful about Dunganstown, 

 near the old castle, FL March. 2. Flowers blue, or sometimes 

 white. Stigma pale, inodorous. The top of the tube of the corolla 

 is closed with pellucid hairs, as first noticed by Mr. Ker in Curt. Mag. 

 where a figure of the plant is given. It is very common in gardens, 

 flowering about a fortnight later than the still more common yellow 

 Crocus, C. mcesiacus of Ker, in Bot. Mag* t. 1111. 



ORD. 81. ORCHIDE^E. Juss. Orchis Family. 



Perianth superior, ringent, of six segments in two rows, the 

 three outer usually coloured, of which the odd one is upper- 

 most, in consequence of a twisting of the ovary, and one 

 called the lip (labellum,) is undermost; this latter is frequently 

 lobed, of a different form from the others, and very often 

 spurred at the base. Stamens three, united in a central co- 

 lumn, the two lateral usually abortive, and the central perfect, 

 or the central abortive and the two lateral perfect : rarely all 

 perfect; anthers either persistent or deciduous, 2- or 4- or 

 8-celled ; pollen either powdery or cohering in definite or inde- 

 finite waxy masses, either constantly adhering to a gland or 



