I RIS SIBI'RICA. 
SIBERIAN IRIS : OR FLEUR-DE-LIS. 
Class. Order. 
TRIANDRIA. MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
iride,®. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
Siberia. 
2 Jr feet. 
May, June. 
Perennial. 
in 1596. 
No. 274. 
The derivation of the word Iris has been lately 
noticed ; but as it is known by the name of Fleur- 
de-lis, and for more than a thousand years, has been 
adopted in France, as a royal badge of honour, the 
origin of this term also, may not prove uninteresting 
at the present momentous crisis. 
The heraldic sign, known as the fleur-de-lis, may 
from its shape, be easily admitted to have had its 
origin in the Iris. Rude sculpture and painting 
would readily adopt the stiff and definite outline 
which we see it now possess. It is said to have been 
one of the emblems on the escutcheon of France, as 
early as the fifth century ; but it was rendered more 
particularly an object of notice in the twelfth century 
by Louis VII, who adopted it as his insignia, when 
he joined the crusade, and led his army to the Holy 
Land, against the enemies of Christianity. This cir- 
cumstance gave to the Iris, or at least to the figure 
which was supposed to represent it, the title of fleur- 
de-Louis, or Louis’s flower. The name was soon 
contracted to fleur-de-luce ; and as the origin of the 
appellation became forgotten, it was further corrupted 
to fleur-de-lis, signifying flower of the Lily. Thus 
