104 IRIS MISSOURIENSIS. —ROCKY MOUNTAIN IRIS, 
While sending our specimens to Mr. Watson, the drawing 
was also forwarded, of which he kindly says: “The leaves should 
be narrower (they are usually two to three lines broad—rarely 
more) and a paler glaucous green. It should show a pair of 
closely approximate bracts, acuminate, and differing from those 
of our other allied species in being thin, pale and scariously mar- 
gined, becoming wholly scarious. The petals (standards as 
Baker calls them) should be erect to the tips or nearly so. The 
flower of /ris is avery difficult thing to figure if you wish to give 
more than a general idea of it, and very few of them in the 
books are really satisfactory botanically. This of yours is on the 
whole as good as could be expected, with the one exception 
noted.” 
Our plant had but the one scape, and the endeavor to give the 
manner in which the second bud pushes from one side of the 
bracts prevented the showing of the double character. But to 
correct the deficiency noted by Mr. Watson, we have since 
added from a dried scape (Fig. 5), showing the two bracts 
referred to at B. In regard to the width of the leaves and tint, 
we may say that they are faithful representations of nature at the 
time the drawing was made; but the root-stock as seen in our 
picture is very strong and vigorous. No leaves are wider than 
those represented, most are longer and slenderer, as suggested 
by Mr. Watson. As seen in our plate, the flowers appear 
sessile; but as they mature, as the writer has seen them in their 
native places of growth, only one fruit seems to come to perfec- 
tion, and that one is on a pedicel of perhaps two inches long. 
EXPLANATIONS OF THE PLATE.—1. Rootestock of last year. 2. Terminal growth of root-stock 
of preceding year. 3. Suab-terminal bud of last year, bearing the flower of the present sea- 
8 
son. 4. Scape, showing the bursting of the second flower from the bracts. 5. The scape 
at maturity not having perfected seed, but showing at B the two distinct bracts. 
