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IRIS FAMILY 



ACE^E IRIS FAMILY 



Iris versicolor, L. 



Violet-blue Large Blue Flag, Flag Lily, 



Fleur-de-lis, Snake Lily, 



June Iris, Water Flag, 



Liver Lily, Poison Flag. 



Iris for derivation see prismatica. 

 Versicolor: Latin for vari-coloured. 



THE PREFERRED HABITAT: boggy grounds. 



THE PLANT: erect, two to three feet high, often branched 

 above; the stem one-angled, without hairs. 



THE LEAVES: erect; sword-like; seven to ten inches long; 

 without hairs, but with a slight greyish bloom; entire; 

 heavily parallel- veined. 



THE FLOWERS: larger than those of the preceding species, 

 the outer parts longer and wider than the inner. 



Cultivation has altered the colour and increased the 

 size of the flowers of the Iris, but has not materially 

 altered their shape. There remain the three more up- 

 right divisions, which in the versicolor are violet-blue and 

 unmarked, and the three larger and more showy petals, 

 which, in this, are " beautifully veined with deep violet 

 over a whitish ground, tinted at the base with yellow." 

 Almost flat upon the petals, lie the three divisions of the 

 style and beneath them are the stamens. The fruit is a 

 long, cylindrical compact capsule. 



"The name, Poison Flag, has been applied to it on ac- 

 count of the poisonous effect it has produced in children, 

 who, owing to the close resemblance of the plants before 

 reaching the flowering-stage, sometimes mistake it for 

 Sweet-Flag." 



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