214 
POPULAR FLORA. 
101. IRIS FAMILY. Order IRIDACEJE. 
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 
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 
514. Plant of Crested Dwarf Iris. 515. Top of the style and the 3 petal-like stigmas, also 
2 of the stamens. 516. Magnified pistil and lower part of the tube of the perianth, divided Once, 
lengthwise : the foliage cut away. 517 Lower part of a pod, divided crosswise. 518. Seed. 
519. Magnified section of the same, showing 1 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 ) Blue-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 fall, berry-like and black, the whole looking like a 
blackberry (whence the common name). Stems leafy below, from a 
rootstock : leaves sword-shapedj ( Pardanthus ) ^Blackberry-Lily. 
