IRIDACEAE (IRIS FAMILY) 



41 



slender few-flowered scapes. Perianth spreading, 6-parted nearly 

 down to the ovary, persistent. 



H. hirsuta. Yellow-eyed Grass. The leaves are longer than the 

 1-4 flowered scape. Flowers in an umbel. The divisions of the peri- 

 anth yellow within and hairy and greenish without. Meadows and 

 open woods. 



IRIDACEAE (Iris Family) 



Herbs, with vertical 2-ranked leaves, and conspicuous perfect 

 flowers, arising from a spathe of 2 or more leaves or bracts. 



IRIS 



Branches of the style or the stigmas opposite the anthers. 

 Sepals spreading or recurved. Petals spreading or erect. Stig- 

 mas petal-like. {Iris, the rainbow.) 



I. versicolor. Blue Flag. Stems leafy and rather tall, arising from 

 thickened rootstocks. Flowers violet-blue, 

 variegated with green, yellow, or white, and 

 purple-veined. Stems stout angled on one 

 side, 1.5-9 dm. high. Leaves sword-shaped, 

 glaucous. Petals flat, half as long as the 

 sepals. Style-branches with slightly over- 

 lapping petaloid lobes. Wet places. May 

 to July. 



SISYRINCHIUM 



Branches of the style alternate with 

 the anthers. Flowers regular. Root 

 fibrous. Filaments united. Stigmas 

 thread-like. Sepals and petals alike, 

 spreading. Low slender perennials with 

 grass-like leaves, 2-edged stems and um- 

 bel-clustered small flowers coming from 

 a usually 2-leaved spathe. 



S. angustifolium. Blue-eyed Grass. 

 Spathe solitary. The plant stiff, erect or 

 ascending, and glaucous, 1-5 dm. high. The 

 simple stems distinctly winged. Spathes Iris versicolor, Blue flag. 



