IRIDACEAE 



IRIS FAMILY 



LARGER BLUE FLAG. FLEUR DE LIS 



Iris 'versicolor L. 



To the Iris family belong the cultivated Crocuses 

 which so delight us in early spring. Here also belongs 

 the Blackberry Lily which is commonly cultivated and 

 which has escaped in some places to 

 roadsides and woods. 



The Larger Blue Flag or Fleur de Lis 

 is found in wet places throughout the 

 eastern half of the United States and 

 Canada, and blooms from 

 May to July. It is a peren- 

 nial with a stout, irregularly 

 branched underground stem 

 that gives rise to the flower- 

 ing stalk and a compact 

 cluster of bladelike leaves, 

 nearly vertical and i-i feet 

 long. The stems are leafy 

 feet high. 



The splendor of this flower aptly | 

 suggests its name, taken from the Greek 

 meaning rainbow. The 3 recurved 

 sepals and 3 upright petals are violet- 

 blue with purple veins and are varie- 

 gated toward the base with green, 

 yellow and white. The style, colored 

 like the rest of the flower, is divided into 

 3 branches which arch over the sepals 

 and might easily be mistaken for petals. 



The end of each of these branches is turned back to form a crest. 

 Underneath this crest is a thin lip or shelf the upper surface of 

 which is covered with minute hairs and a sticky secretion. This 

 is the stigma. Curved under these branches of the style are 

 the 3 stamens, each with an anther as long as the filament that 

 bears it. The ovary is below the other parts of the flower and 

 develops into a 3-celled capsule with 2 rows of seeds in each cell. 



I saw no planted things. 

 But white and purple butterflies 

 Tied down with silken strings. 

 Iris Floners — Mary McNf.il rKNOi.LOSA 



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