﻿in<j each other by their compressed base (equitant), sword-shaped, 

 ribbed, grass-green. Valves of the spatha or sheath spear-shaped. 

 Flowers upright, showy, of a yellow colour, the 3 outer and larger 

 petals reflexed, their disk pencilled with dark purple. 



“ Those,” says Mr. Curtis, “ who have examined the structure 

 of the flowers of this plant, must allow it to be at once beautiful, 

 delicate, and singularly curious; the stigma (fig. 2.) in particular 

 deserves to be noticed by the student, being in form and substance 

 more like the petals than the part it really is*.” 



The juice of the fresh root is excessively acrid, and has been 

 found to act as an aperient, after other powerful means have failed ; 

 the dose is 80 drops every hour or two, but being very violent in its 

 operation, it might prove a dangerous remedy in incautious hands, 

 but when mixed with milk, it is said to act in the mildest manner. 

 The fresh roots have been mixed with the food of swine bitten by 

 a mad dog, and they escaped the disease, when others bitten by 

 the same dog died raving mad. The root loses most of its acri- 

 mony by drying. Mr. Lightfoot informs us, in lbs Flora Scotica, 

 that in Arran, and some other of the Western Isles, the roots are 

 used to dye black ; and that in Jura they are boiled with copperas 

 to make Ink. A slice of the fresh root, held between the teeth 

 removes some kinds of tooth-ache. 



Linn.eus asserts this plant to be decidedly injurious to all cattle, 

 except goats. Mr. W. Skrimshire has discovered that the seeds 

 of this Iris afford an excellent substitute for foreign coffee ; and 

 that being roasted in the same manner, they are extremely whole- 

 some and nutritious in proportion of half an ounce or an ounce to 

 a pint of boiling water. 



A variety of Iris Pseud-acorns with a white flower is said in 

 Ray’s Synopsis, to have been observed by Mr. Dale, a Physician, 

 and an excellent botanist ; of Braintree, in Essex. 



The Natural Order Iri’deje is composed of Monocotyledonous, generally 

 herbaceous plants, whose roots are either tuberous or fibrous. Their stems are 

 round or compressed ; their leaves are fiat, sword-shaped, equitant, and two- 

 ranked, except in crocus. Their inflorescence is various, being spiked, corym- 

 bose, paniclcd, or crowded. Their .flowers, which are often very large, and 

 most of them extremely beautiful, are enveloped, previous to their expansion, in 

 a membranous, thin, or scariose spatha. Their perianthium ( corolla of S.m.) 

 is superior, in six parts, which are either partially cohering, or entirely separate, 

 sometimes irregular, the 3 inner (petals) being sometimes very short. Their 

 stamens, which are always 3, arise from the base of the outer segments (sepals) ; 

 filaments distinct or united (monadelphous) ; anthers fixed by their base, 

 2-celled, bursting externally lengthwise. The ovarium is3-celled, cells many- 

 seeded; style 1; stigmas 3, often petaloid (petal-like), sometimes 2-lipped. 

 The capsule is 3-celled, and 3-valved, with a loculicidal dehiscence, (i. e. the 

 dissepiments or partitions are situated on the middle of the inner surface of the 

 valves). The seeds are attached to the inner angle of the cell, or sometimes to 

 a central column, becoming loose ; their embryo undivided, and placed in a 

 Heshy or horny albumen. See Lindley’s Synopsis, and Richard by Afacgil- 

 livray. — The only British Genera which belong to this order are Iris, Tricho- 

 nema, and Crocus; but it compiehends a great many exotic genera, amongst 

 which are some of the most beautiful productions of the vegetable kingdom, and 

 which, from their easy culture, have become universal favourites in our gardens. 



* A very curious account of the agency of insects in promoting the fertiliza- 

 tion of the different species of Iris may be seen in that very entertaining and 

 instructive work, Kirby and Spence’s “Introduction to Entomology, or Ele- 

 ments of the Natural Ilistory of Insects,” vol. i. p. 293. ; and in Dr. Wuher- 

 ins's Hot. Arr. v. ii. p.96. 



