IRIDACEAE (IRIS FAMILY) 299 



6. HYP6XIS L. STAR GRASS 



Perianth spreading. Fruit crowned with the withered or closed perianth. 

 Seed globular. Stemless small herbs, with grassy and hairy linear leaves and 

 -slender few-flowered scapes. (An old name for a plant having sourish leaves, 

 from UTTOUS, sub-acid.) 



I. H. hirsuta (L.) Coville. Leaves linear, grass-like, longer than the uni- 

 bellately 1-4-flowered scape ; divisions of the perianth hairy and greenish out- 

 side, yellow (rarely whitish) within. '(H. erecta L.) Meadows and open 

 woods, s. w. Me. to Fla., Assina., e. Kan. and Tex. 



IRIDACEAE (!RIS FAMILY) 



Herbs, with equitant 2-ranked leaves, and regular or irregular perfect flowers ; 

 the 3 petals and 3 petal-like sepals convolute in the bud, the tube adnate to 

 the 3-celled ovary, and 3 distinct or monadelphous stamens, alternate with the 

 petals, with extrorse anthers. Flowers from a spathe of 2 or more leaves or 

 bracts, usually showy. Style single, usually 3-cleft ; stigmas 3, opposite the 

 cells of the ovary, or 6 by the parting of the style-branches. Capsule 3-celled, 

 loculicidal, many-seeded. Seeds anatropous ; embryo straight in fleshy albu- 

 men. Rootstocks, tubers, or conns mostly acrid. 



* Branches of the style (or stigmas) opposite the anthers. 



1. Iris. Sepals spreading or recurved. Petals spreading or erect. Stigmas petal-like. 



* * Branches of the style alternate with the anthers ; flower regular. 



2. NemastyliS. Stem from a coated bulb. Filaments united. Style-branches 2-cleft. 



3. Belamcanda, Stems from a creeping rhizome. Filaments distinct. Stigmas dilated. 



4. Sisyrinchium. Koot fibrous. Filaments united. Stigmas thread-like. 



1. IRIS [Tourn.] L. FLEUR-DE-LIS 



Tube of the flower more or less prolonged beyond the ovary. Stamens dis- 

 tinct ; the oblong or linear anthers sheltered under the over-arching petal-like 

 stigmas (or rather branches of the style, bearing the true stigma in the form of 

 a thin lip or plate under the apex) ; most of the style connate with the sepals 

 and petals into a tube. Capsule 3-6-angled, coriaceous. Seeds depressed- 

 flattened, usually in 2 rows in each cell. Perennials, with sword-shaped or 

 grassy leaves, and large showy flowers; ours with creeping and more or less 

 tuberous rootstocks. ( T I/s, the rainbow.) 



* Stems leafy and rather tall, from usually thickened rootstocks, often branch- 

 ing ; tube much shorter than the sepals, which are usually much larger 

 than the petals. 



- Sepals neither bearded nor crested. 



M- Spathes all terminal or at the tips of elongate peduncles. 



= Flowers violet-blue, variegated with green, yellow, or white, and purple-veined. 



a. Ovary and capsule obtusely angled. 



I. Seeds in 2 rows in each cell. 



1. I. versicolor L. (LARGER BLUE FLAG.) Stem stout, angled on one side, 

 1.5-9 dm. high ; leaves sword-shaped (0.5-2.5 cm. wide), glaucous ; ovary ob- 

 tusely triangular, with flat sides ; flowers (5-8 cm. long) short-pediceled, varie- 

 gated with green, yellow and white toward the center, the funnel-form tube 

 shorter than the ovary ; petals flat, oblanceolate or narrowly obovate, half as 

 long as the sepals; style-branches with slightly overlapping petaloid lobes; cap- 

 sule firm, subcylindric, turgid, with rounded angles, stout-beaked; seeds 4-6 mm. 



