IRIDACEAE ^IRIS FAMILY^ 299 



6. HYP6x1S L. Star Grass 



Perianth spreading. Fruit crowned witli 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 vTTo^v^, sub-acid.) 



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

 bellately 1-4-flow^ered scape ; divisions of the perianth hairy and gTeetiish out- 

 Bide, yellow (rarely whitish) within. (H. erecta L.) — Meadows and open 

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



IRIDAcEAE (Iris 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 ^-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 S-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 recurvea. Petals spreading or erect. Stigmas petal-Hke. 



* * 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. Eoot 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. (^Ipts, 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. 



t- Sepals neither bearded nor crested. 



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



fc= Flowers violet-blue, variegated with green, yelloic, or white, and purple-veined, 



a. Ovary and capsule obtusely angled. 



1. Seeds in 2 roics 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), giancotis; ovary ob- 

 tusely triangular, with flat sides ; flowers (5-8 cm. long) sliort-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 an 

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

 sule firm, subcylindric, turgid, with rounded angles, stout-beaked ; seeds 4-0 mm. 



