494 IRIDACE^. [Iris- 



Plant not growing in clusters like the next species. Root (rhizoma) thick, 

 fleshy, running horizontally, subcylindrical, with numerous pale fibres. Stem 

 erect, straight or slightly wavy, terete below, faintly furrowed above, pale green, 

 alternately branched, branches simple, axillary. Leaves ensiform, acute, their 

 tips oblique, 2, 3, or 4 feet long and from 1 inch to 2J inches wide, erect, pale 

 green, with a glaucous cast, and having a thin, sharp, sometimes double central 

 keel running their entire length on both sides; those from the root equitant, on 

 the stem distant, alternate and sheathing at the base. Flowers large, erect, ino- 

 dorous, bright golden yellow, 2, 3, or more together, successively protruded from 

 large, unequally 2-leaved, furrowed sheaths or spalTies. Exlerior petals very 

 large, beardless, roundish ovate, spreading or deflexed, of a rich yellow marked 

 towards their claws with a deeper-coloured field, either plane or punctately veined 

 and streaked with purplish; interior petals very small, erect, ovato-oblong, shorter 

 than the stigmas, their claws convolute. Stamens inserted at the base of the 

 larger petals, shorter than the stigmas ; anthers linear-oblong, purplish brown, yel- 

 low at the back ; pollen yellow, globose. Stigmas the colour of the petals, nearly 

 erect, their summits 2-lobed, the lobes overlapping, jagged and crenate on the 

 margin, and covering a short, entire, membranous, scale-like appendage or lip. 

 Capsules yellowish green, lax, drooping or pendulous, from 2 to 3 inches in length, 

 oblong, very obtusely trigonous and lobed, suddenly contracting at their apex into 

 a short, blunt, beak-like process; valves not widely dehiscing, leathery. Seeds 

 very numerous, pale yellowish brown, smooth and shining, orbicular, semiorbicu- 

 lar or somewhat trigonate in the same cell, thick and rounded at the back, cune- 

 ately attenuated on their inner side to their margin, closely packed horizontally 

 by their flat surface in a single or double series ; testa dry, loose and husky. 



2. I. foetidissima, L. Stinking Gladdon or Gladwyn. Roast- 

 beef Plant. Leaves sword- shaped plane, perianth beardless, its 

 inner segments spreading, stem 1-angled, seeds globose pul23y. 

 Sm. E. Fl. i. p, 50. Br. Fl. p. 427. E. B. ix. t. 596. Curt. Br. 

 Entom. vii. t. 292 (fruit). 



p. citrina. Flowers of a uniform pale colour. 



Tn groves, thickets, copses, pastures, borders of fields, and on hedgebanks ; 

 plentiful in most parts of the island. Fl. June, July. Fr. September, October. 



E. Med. — Everywhere around Eyde ; about Quarr abbey, in Quarr copse, Ma- 

 rina wood by Apley, St. John's wood, &c. Plentiful all along the Undercliff, at 

 Bonchurch, Steephill, St. Lawrence, &c. 



W. Med. — Woods around Cowes and Yarmouth, abundantly. About Mottes- 

 ton, but not common in that S.W. part of the island. 



/3. Wood at Yarmouth. 



A species growing most commonly in clumps, and distinguished from most 

 others of the genus by the total absence of the usual glaucous colour in the leaves. 

 Root short, fleshy, cylindrical and horizontal, about the thickness of the middle 

 finger, brownish and wrinkled, emitting several very long, white, tapering and 

 transversely rugose fibres. Stem solitary, many-flowered, flexuose, a little com- 

 pressed and obscurely 1-edged, a character much more conspicuous when viewed 

 in the closely investing upper leaves, which are acutely folded or couduplicate 

 behind, but follow the rounded contour of the stem anteriorly. Leaves numerous, 

 ensiform, equitant, often above 2 feet long and above an inch in width, dark rich 

 shining green on both sides, deeply striated, firm and rigid, quite plane or with- 

 out a keel, their edges cartilaginous and finely serrulate towards the very acute 

 point; one or two of the leaves mostly overtopping the stem, the rest shorter than 

 or equalling the latter, those on the stem itself closely sheathing. Flowers seve- 

 ral, on obtusely trigonous peduncles that elongate during inflorescence, smaller 

 than in the last species and of a firm texture, handsome but not showy, with a 

 peculiar scent, different from that of the leaves, expanding one or two at a time 

 from the deciduous, diphyllous, lanceolate spathe and the enveloping hollow upper 



