BOTANICAL, INDEX 
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which reason, if for no other, we feel justified in treating of it as a Water Inly. 
But we know the propriety of calling it Water Lily, will at once be questioned by 
many, and we must add a word more in explanation, for, although some species are 
the exact reverse of an aquatic plant, still some of our American and European 
species are so much at home on the low, wet margins of lakes and rivers, and are 
even often found growing in shallow water, where the roots, and sometimes the 
crown of the plant, is often submerged during a large portion of the year, that we 
see no impropriety in adding the Iris to the list of so-called Water Lilies; particu- 
larly, as we propose to treat only of the American and European forms in this arti- 
cle. 
Before we proceed further with this very common plant, let us abandon the idea 
of its being too commonplace and insignificant, to be worth devoting much time too, 
for of all common plants, of which this is often considered the least attractive, prob- 
ably no one is so little understood, even by amateur cultivators, as this family of 
plants. Its tlower is so very complicated, that very few, except botanists, really 
understand its structure, or at least we find quite a difference in the descriptions 
published by different authors and writers. 
By a reference to standard works on Botany, Ave find the Iris distributed over the 
entire world, from the far north, to the southern points of land in South America 
and New Zealand; but, in its manor of growth, we find it assumes an entirely dif- 
ferent character, in different portions of the ‘world. For example : — In the hot and 
dry regions, instead of a creeping rhizoma, as with us, it concentrates all its vitality 
into a bulb or conn, which remains dormant during the prevalence of the drouth, 
but develops again into activity at the approach of the rainy season. These, of 
course, are not aquatic plants, and will not come under our present consideration. 
In America we have, at least, eight well defined species, usually found in shal- 
low water or swamps, but occasionally found in quite dry ground, and presenting 
the strange analogy of producing flowers, of that unusual combination of colors, 
— yellow and blue, — two colors seldom found in the same flower, or even in the same 
genus. Indeed, we have often seen the statement in print, that in no genus of 
plants can two natural species, or even varieties be found, one with a yellow, and 
the other with a blue flower; but this is certainly a mistake, for numerous genera of 
plants contain one species with yellow, and another one with blue flowers; the ex- 
amples of which may be cited, are Crocus , Linum, JYymphcea, Nelunibium, etc. It is 
not, however, a usual combination of colors, and as some species of the Iris pro- 
duce flowers with both colors in the same flower, it adds an addi- 
Fig. 148. 
Fig. 149. ( From Prof. Gray's Botany.) 
