BLUE AND PURPLE WILD FLOWERS 
green seed case which terminates the stem. Usually 
several buds are guarded with a pair of short, sheathing 
leaflets, and they blossom one at a time. About 
twenty species of Iris are found distributed through- 
out North America and the name Fleur-de-lis is 
generally applied to them all. 
POINTED BLUE-EYED GRASS 
Stsyrinchium angustifélium. Iris Family. 
The pretty little blue, starry flowers of this familiar 
species peep up here and there through the grass of our 
moist fields and meadows from May to August, like so 
many golden-centred floral scarf pins. The blossoms 
expand only once, and even then require the bright 
morning sunshine to coax them fully open, so that their 
petals curve gracefully backward and expose their 
bright yellow eyes. The slender, rigid, two-edged, 
light green stalk grows from three to fourteen inches in 
height. It is usually winged and rarely forked at the 
top. The long, slender, sharp pointed grass-lke 
leaves are mostly gathered in a sheath at the base. 
From one to three, six-parted, violet-blue, yellow-eyed 
flowers blossom one at a time, on tiny stems, which 
spring from a pair of sheathing leaflets at the top 
of the stalk. Each of the blunt oblong flower parts 
is tipped with a short, sharp, bristly point. They 
have three stamens and a pistil. This quickly perish- 
ing and very dainty little beauty is all the more 
lovely when we realize that it belongs to the Iris 
family and is related to the showy Blue Flag. It 
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