IRIS FAMILY. Iridaceae. 



There are numerous kinds of Sisyrinchium, attractive 

 little plants, all American, many from South America? 

 with fibrous roots; grasslike leaves; slender, flat stems, 

 sometimes branching; papery and green bracts and pretty 

 flowers, that soon wither, on very slender pedicels, the six 

 spreading divisions all alike; the filaments of the stamens 

 united; the style branches slender, the capsule roundish, 

 containing round seeds. 



The deep blue stars of this pretty plant 

 Blue-Eyed Grass 



Sisyrinchium are a beautiful feature of the fields near 

 bellum Santa Barbara, and in other parts of 



Blue California, in summer; in fact they are so 



plentiful in some places that they are a 

 menace to the farmers. They grow in 

 clumps, about a foot tall, among the grass. The stems 

 are somewhat branching, the leaves are shorter than the 

 stem, and the bracts are about an inch long, green and 

 sheathing. There are about seven flowers on each stem, in 

 a loose cluster, each about an inch across and handsomer 

 than their relations in the East. They vary in tint from 

 bright blue to purple, with a yellow "eye, " and their divi- 

 sions are prettily notched at the tips, with a little prong. 

 The anthers are arrow-shaped, the style short, with three 

 very small stigmas, and the small, oddly-shaped, little 

 capsule is dark-brown when ripe, and perhaps suggested 

 one of the common names, Nigger-babies. It is called 

 Azulea and Villela by Spanish-Calif ornians. 



This is very much like Blue-eyed Grass, 



Grits n ~ Eyed but the flowers are bri S ht yellow, the 

 Sisyrinchium stems are about a foot tall, broadly winged 

 Californicum and not branching, and the leaves are 



Yellow somewhat broader. The pretty flowers 



Spring, summer ^ Q nearl an inch acrosg and there ^ Q 

 Cal., Oreg. 



from three to seven in a cluster. The 



filaments are united at the base only, the style is cleft to 

 below the middle, and the small capsule is rather oblong. 

 This grows in swampy places near the ocean. S. A rizbni- 

 cum has yellow flowers and branching stems and grows in 

 Arizona. S. Elmeri also has yellow flowers, with purple 

 lines, and is found in wet places in the Sierras. When 

 pressed and dried the yellow-flowered Sisyrinchiums stain 

 the paper reddish-purple. 



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