THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



9 



only species in the genus with bright red seed pods. Iris fidva, 

 or Iris ciiprea of the older books, has copper red flowers, the 

 mourning iris (Iris susiana) has flowers heavily veined with 

 deep brown and black while several closely related species have 

 flowers ecjually curious in markings. Iris pseudaconis, a 

 European plant naturalized in many moist places in America, 

 has golden yellow flowers, those of the Florentine iris (Iris 

 Florentina) are milk white, while those of the snake's head 

 iris (Iris tuherosa) are green and black. Iris sainhucina has 

 flowers with the scent of elder blossoms. The snake's head 

 iris is medicinal, while from the Florentine iris comes the 

 familiar orris root, the word orris evidently being a corruption 

 of iris. 



Since the irises are practically all plants of the North 

 Temperate Zone, they are likely to prove perfectly hardy in 

 the United States. There is a prevalent impression that irises 

 are difficult to grow in ordinary gardens, but this is a mistake, 

 due, probably to the fact that our best known native species, 

 the blue flag (Iris versicolor) , is found in low grounds. On 

 the contrary, nearly all irises thrive in any good soil and delight 

 in sunny situations. The blue flag itself, is especially vigorous 

 in such surroundings. As a matter of fact, the irises, like 

 their relatives the crocus and gladiolus, are dry ground, almost 

 desert, plants. A Japanese species (Iris tectonnn) grows on 

 the thatched roofs in its native land, and even those species 

 that grow naturally in water have many of the features of 

 drouth plants, such as underground storage organs, and 

 narrow leaves covered with wax or "bloom" and turned edge- 

 wise to the sun. Even the internal structure of the leaf and 

 stem is similar to plants of dry regions. Though the situations 

 in which many species grow may be wet in spring, they are 

 often exceedingly dry in midsummer. The average garden 

 is thus seen to present conditions quite suitable to irises and 

 our hot dry summers have no serious effects upon them ; in 



