IRIS FAMILY. 415 



2. LOPHIOLA. (Greek : small crest, referring to a woolly tuft near 

 the base of the perianth lobes.) 2/ 



L. aurea, Ker. Stem leafless and woolly above, creeping at the base, 

 2 high ; leaves linear and nearly smooth ; flowers dingy yellow inside, 

 hi a crowded cyme. Pine barrens, N. J., S. 



3. ALETRIS, COLICROOT, STAR GRASS. (Name Greek, allud- 

 ing to the apparent mealiness of the flowers. ) Stemless, the flowers in 

 a wand-like raceme ; scape 2-3 high, arising from a cluster of lance- 

 olate leaves. 2/ 



A. farin&sa, Linn. Flowers white, oblong-tubular, the perianth lobes 

 lance-oblong. Woods, Mass, to Minn., and S. 



A. aurea, Walt. Flowers yellow and shorter, bell-shaped, the lobes 

 short-ovate. Barrens, N. J., S. 



CXVL IRIDACEJ:, IRIS FAMILY. 



Perennial herbs with bulbous, cormous (Lessons, Figs. 105, 

 106), or tuberous (sometimes fibrous) roots, distinguished by 

 the equitant (Lessons, Figs, 164, 165), erect, 2-ranked leaves, 

 and the 3 stamens with anthers facing outwards. Flowers per- 

 fect and showy, colored, mostly from a spathe of two or more 

 leaves or bracts ; the tube of the perianth coherent with the 

 3-celled ovary and often prolonged beyond it, its divisions 6 in 

 two sets (answering to sepals and petals), each convolute in 

 the bud. Style 1-, or rarely 3-cleft ; stigmas 3, opposite the 3 

 stamens and the outer divisions of the perianth. Fruit a 3- 

 celled and many-seeded pod. (Lessons, Figs. 395, 396.) 



* Spathe generally 2- or more-flowered (I -flowered in some Irises), terminal or pedun- 

 culate ; flowers generally stalked in the spathe. 



+- Perianth of 3 outer recurving, and 3 inner commonly smaller erect or incurving 

 divisions; stigmas, or more properly lobes of the style, petal-like. 



1. IRIS. Flowers with tube either slightly or much prolonged beyond the ovary, in the 



latter case coherent also with the style. Stamens under the overarching branches of 

 the style ; anthers linear or oblong, fixed by the base. The real stigma is a shelf or 

 short lip on the lower face of the petal-like branch of the style, only its inner surface 

 stigmatic. Pod 3-6-angled. Roots rhizomatons or tuberous. 



4- +- Perianth deeply cleft or parted into 6 widely spreading divisions ; stamens mona- 

 delphous to the top ; style long ; stigmas 8 or 6, thread-like ; flowers opening in 

 sunshine and but once for a few hours. 



2. TIGRIDIA. From a conn with some hard brittle coating. Leaves lanceolate, large, 



very much plaited. Three outer divisions of the perianth very large and with a con- 

 cave base; the other 8 very much smaller and fiddle-shaped. Stigmas 3, each 

 2-cleft. 



8. SISTRINCHIUM. Root mostly fibrous. Leaves grass-like. Divisions of the wheel- 

 shaped flower all alike. Stigmas 3, simple. 



