214 POPULAR FLORA. 
101. IRIS FAMILY. Order IRIDACEA. 
Herbs with perennial roots, commonly with rootstocks, bulbs, or corms, and with equitant 
leaves (151, Fig. 64); the flowers perfect, regular or irregular; tube of the corolla-like 
7 perianth below coherent 
with the surface of the 
ovary, and so appearing 
to grow from its summit; 
stamens only 3, one before 
each of the outer divis- 
ions of the perianth; their 
anthers turned outwards, 
i. e. looking towards the 
perianth and opening on 
that side. Ovary 3-celled, 
making a many-seeded 
pod: style one: stigmas 
3, often flat or petal-like. 
Herbage, rootstocks, &c. 
generally acrid or sharp- 
tasted. Flowers generally 
showy, and from a spathe 
of one or more leaf-like 
bracts, or from the axils of 
the uppermost leaves, each 
one generally opening but 
614, Plant of Crested Dwarf Iris. 515, Top of the style and the 3 petal-like atigmas, also 
Mugrectes Ais Molngecar eae BIZ. Lower duh oe peapaivan cromwhe BIE Geode 
519. Magnified section of the same, showing the embryo. ‘ 
Filaments monadelphous in a tube which encloses the style as in a sheath: stigmas 
thread-shaped: perianth 6-parted nearly to the ovary, widely spread- 
ing, opening in sunshine and for only one day. 
Flowers small, blue or purple, with 6 equal obovate divisions: stigmas simple: stems 
or scapes flat or 2-winged, from fibrous roots; leaves narrow and 
grass-like, (Sisyrinchium) Buur-eYED-GRass. 
Flowers very large, orange and spotted with crimson and purple; the 3 inner divisions 
much smaller and narrowed in the middle: stigmas each 2-cleft: 
scape terete, from a coated bulb; leaves plaited, ( Tigridia) *TIGER-FLOWER. 
Filaments separate: stigmas flattened, or petal-like. 
Perianth 6-parted down to the ovary, regular and wheel-shaped, the divisions obovate- 
oblong, all alike, yellow, with darker spots: seeds remaining after the 
valves of the pod full, berry-like and black, the whole looking like a 
blackberry (whence the common name). Stems leafy below, from a 
rootstock: leaves sword-shaped, (Pardanthus) *BLACKBERRY-LILY. 
