THE FLEUE-DE-LYS 215 



water segg. It is the flower of Louis, since the 

 seventh French king of that name introduced the 

 device known as the fleur-de-lys into the arms of 

 France, but it is exceedingly doubtful that this was 

 based upon the present flower. In France to-day 

 it is the iris des marais the iris of the marshes 

 while in Germany it is the wasser Schwertlilie 

 the water sword-lily. The north country name 

 segg is from the Anglo-Saxon sacg, a small 

 sword. The swords, obviously, are the sharp- 

 edged and acutely pointed leaves that rise around 

 the yellow flowers that wave their sepals, flag-like, 

 in the breeze, while iris l is a name bestowed on 

 the genus as a whole, since one finds so rich a 

 variety of beautiful colours in the various species 

 that it contains. 



The second plant on the Plate is that generally 

 known as the cornflower, since it is so distinctly a 

 dweller in the cornfields, but so, no less, are the 

 brilliant poppy, and the equally brilliant corn- 

 marigold, the whole forming a grand trio of intense 

 scarlet, pure golden-yellow, and deep blue. A less 

 attractive but perhaps more definite name for it 

 is the corn blue-bottle, the bottle being that globular 



1 In classic mythology Iris was originally the personifica- 

 tion of the rainbow, as Selene was of the moon, and Eos of 

 the dawn, but she later on became the messenger of the gods 

 to man, the rainbow being, as it were, the bridge of com- 

 munication between the upper and the intermediate worlds. 



