IRIS IRIDAOE^ 635 



BISYHINCHIUM 



slender, terete, nake^ or with 1 or 2 leaves, 6 inches to 2 feet high, usually 

 2-flowered: leaves two to three lines broad, mostly shorter than the stems: 

 hracts dilated and scarious, 1-1^ inches long, acute or acuminate: flowers 

 pde blue, on pedicels J^-2 inches long, : tube of the perianth 3-4 lines long, 

 narrowed below: outer segments 3-2)^ inches long, the inner ones a little 

 shorter, all with narrow claws: anthers not exceeding the fllaments, equalling 

 or exceeding the stigmas: capsule oblong, triangular or subterete, 1-3 inches 

 long, acute at each end: seeds obovate, acute at base, 2 lines long. Eastern 

 Washington to California and the Kooky Mountains, 



2 SI8YRINCHIUM L. Sp. 954. 



Perennial herbs with short rootstocks, simple or branched 

 stems, narrow grass-like leaves and showy flowers in small ter- 

 minal clusters on filiform pedicels subtended by a pair of erect 

 green bracts. Perianth 6-parted, the segments similar and 

 spreading. Stamens 3, the filaments united, at least at base. 

 Stigmas filiform, alternate with the stamens, involute. Ovary 

 3-celled, with several ovules in each cell. Capsule globose, oval 

 or ovoid. Seeds subglobose or ovoid, smooth or pitted. 



* Stems ancipital, usually branched: flowers blue: filaments united 

 to the top: anthers short, sagittate: stigmas short. 



S. bellum Watson Proc. Am. Acad, xii, 277. Stems 6-20 inches 

 high, som^hat scabrous on the naiTow margins, of a single node, or often 

 with 2 or 3 nodes, each 'node bearing 1-4 peduncles: leaves a line or two 

 wide, shorter than the stems: peduncles 2-4 inches long, usually about equal- 

 ling the nodal bract: spathes of 3 nearly equal bracts 6-12 lines long, scabrous 

 on the keel, 4-7-flowered: segments of the perianth broad-lanceolate, about 

 6 lines long, truncate but scarcely emarginate, shortly aristulate, light purple, 

 darker below and yellow at base, somewhat pubescent as well as the ovary: 

 staminal column 3 lines long, purplish, pubescent at base, : capsule depressed- 

 globose or ovoid,3 -3 lines long; the cells about 10-seeded: seeds irregularly 

 and obtusely angled, roughened, % of a line in diameter. In wet places, 

 Oregon to California. 



S. segetnm Bicknell Bull. Torr. Bot. Club xxvi, 449. Bather pale 

 green and somewhat glaucescent, growing in close tufts: stems erect, slendei', 

 4-11 inches high, simple: leaves 4-6 inches long, a line or less wide, some- 

 times roughish toward the setaceous or aculeate apex: spathes stiffly erect, 

 the outer bract very slenderly attenuate, sometimes for fully half its length, 

 1-1% inch long, subequal with or surpassing the inner one by J^ or more: 

 flowers on very slender subspreading pedicels, deep violet-blue : segments of 

 the perianth oblanceolate, obtuse aristulate, 6-7 lines long; capsule oblong 

 or obovoid, transversely corrugated, many-seeded: seeds irregularly obovoid, 

 less than a line long. On dry grassy plains, Washington and Oregon to 

 Nevada, 



S. angnstifolium Mill. Gard. Diet, ed 7, 1859. Pale glaucous-green : 

 stems slender 4r-30 inches high, of a single node, or rarely forked: leaves 

 rigid and often almost setaceous, 4^8 mches long, jj^-lj^ lines wide, shorter 

 than the stem: spathes stiffly erect, the bracts very unequal, the outer one 

 usually about twice as long as the inner: pedicels erect, about 8 lines long, 

 nhorter than the bracts: segments of the perianth oblanceolate, emarginate, 

 6-8 lines long, pale blue : capsule subglobose, 2-3 lines in diameter : seeds 

 }4~H line in diameter. On grassy plains, Oregon to Brit. Columbia and 

 Virginia. 



