IRIDACE^. 149 



I have seen no British specimens of the phmt, but have described it 

 from cultivated specimens grown from a root wliich was sent me by 

 M. Lenormand from the south of France. 



Tuberous Iris. 



French, Iris tubereux, 



GENUS F._0RO0US. Tournef. 



Perianth regular, petaloid ; tube very long, straight, and extending 

 much beyond the ovary ; limb 6-partite ; segments all nearly similar, 

 incurved or recurved. Stamens 3, inserted on the base of the external 

 segments of the perianth ; filaments filiform ; anthers afiixed by the 

 base. Ovary adhering to the base of the perianth tube, ovoid, bluntly 

 trigonous, white; style very long, filiform; stigmas 3, wedgeshaped, 

 fleshy, denticulate or cut at the apex. Capsule of the consistence of 

 parchment, fusiform-trigonous, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds few, 

 globose, with a somewhat fleshy testa. 



Herbs with equal-based corms covered by an envelope of parallel 

 or interlacing fibres or more rarely splitting into transverse rings. 

 Leaves all radical,, linear, often revolute, channelled above, keeled 

 beneath, -with a white stripe on the upper side. Flowers large, showy, 

 enclosed in a convolute membranous spathe ; the ovaiy remaining 

 underground till after the time of flowering. 



The derivation of the name of this genus of plants is from the Greek words k-pomg 

 or KpoKov, saffron ; or KpoKrj, the thread called woof or weft in weaving, because the 

 stigmata are like threads for ornamental weaving. 



SPECIES I— C ROCUS BIFLORUS. Miller. 



Plate MCCCCXCVTI. 



Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. IX. Tab. CCCLVI. Fig. 788. 



Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Essicc. No. 2373. 



C. minimus, Ilook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 442 (non B.C.). 



C. prtecox, Saivorth, in Engl. Bot. Suppl. No. 2G45. 



C. reticulatus, Sm. Engl. Fl. Vol. IV. p. 262 (non M. Bich.). 



Corm not stoloniferous, clothed -with thick shining leathery coats 

 which split transversely into rings towards the base, and under pressure 

 separate into triangular plates at the apex, but have no fibrous struc- 

 ture. Leaves produced at the end of winter before the flowers, very 

 narrowly linear, with parallel sides and strongly revolute margins. 

 Spathe 2-valved ; the valves subequal, acute, scarious. Flowers 1 to 3 

 (usually 2), appearing in early spring, rerianth segments when 



