IRIS VERNA. 
SPRING IRIS. 
NATURAL ORDER, IRIDACEAE. 
IRIs VERNA, Linnzus.—Leaves linear-ensiform, rigid, rather longer than the low, one-flowered 
scape; tube of the perianth filiform (two inches long), about equalling the length of the 
segments; sepals and petals nearly equal, oblong-obovate, obtuse, neither crested nor 
bearded, stigma deeply bifid. Stem or scape three to five inches high, sheathed with 
colored bracts. Flowers pale blue, the sepals with an oblong, or orange yellow, spotted 
stripe. (Wood’s Class- Book of Botany. See also Chapman’s Flora of the Southern 
United States.) 
1S one proceeds to write a popular chapter on an /7vs, the 
|] many poetical and historical associations connected 
with it crowd on the mind. Mythological accounts of its origin 
in connection with Juno’s fair messenger are numerous, and as 
no two accounts exactly agree, a collection of the various ver- 
sions would form a very pretty chapter in imaginative floral 
literature. 
Louisa Ann Twamley has a pretty story about the naming of 
the Iris at one of the courts held by Flora,—._ 
“All with their pearls so fair 
The gay flowers wreathed were, 
But, midst them all, 
Crowned at the rainbow festival, 
A sapphire-colored blossom shone 
The loveliest there; no other one 
Her jewels wore 
So gracefully. Her robe all o’er 
Was radiant, yet deep blue, like twilight sky, 
And softly shaded, as when clouds do lie 
Upon the deep expanse. ’Twas strange, none knew 
A name for this fair form, so bright and blue: 
But sister-flowerets fancifully said, 
As they to note her beauty had been led 
By its enhancement in the rainbow shower, 
They e’en would call her Iris from that hour.” 
(45) 
