Part 68

The erect stalk varies in height from 4 to 12 inches; it is round and smooth; light green or pale in color.

The long slender root-leaves (one or two), which rise from the ground, are tapering at the base, firm and thick of fibre, and smooth to the touch; the color is yellowish-green. A few sheathing little leaves occur along the stalk.

The small flower is very like S. Romanzoffiana, with a curving lip, and crinkled margins; in color it is pearly white. It is enfolded in an oval, small, green leafy bract. The flowers are oddly arranged, in a single much twisted row, forming a spiral spike.

The blossoms are sweet scented.

IRIS FAMILY.

IRIDACEÆ.

*Wild Iris.* Iris versicolor. *Larger Blue Flag.*

Found by runlets and in moist meadows, in June.

The rootstock sends up several leaves ensheathing the flower-stem.

The leaf is sword-shaped, long, narrow, and pointed, with a narrow, light, ribbon-like finish to its edge; the inconspicuous ribs are grass-like. Its color is a cool, light green, with traces of dull violet near the foot. Several leaves overlap one another at the base.

The flower is large, with 9 petal-like parts, growing in sets of threes; the 3 outer parts are broad, spreading, and curving downwards more or less,--in color violet, marked with white and yellow, and delicately lined with dark violet; the 3 parts that alternate with these are smaller, erect, and taper to a narrow foot at the base,--in color they are violet; the pistil is in 8 petal-like parts, which curve back, over the broad outer divisions, with a fine arch (under which the stamens may be found),---they are cleft at the tips, and in color are violet, darker at the tips, and reddish on the arch. The texture of the flower is exceedingly fine and delicate. It grows from the summit of the 3-angled green seed-case, which is borne on a tall, leafy, green stem; this stem is slightly flattened on opposite sides, and is smooth and polished of surface.

The ancients, who named this flower Iris, had a true appreciation of its rainbow-like qualities; its texture is so ethereal that it seems to float in the grass, and to fade before our eyes like its evanescent namesake. It however replaces one day’s bloom by another flowering, and keeps up a prolonged succession of blossoms from day to day.

“The fleur-de-lys, which is the flower of chivalry, has a sword for its leaf, and a lily for its heart.”--Ruskin.

*Blue-eyed Grass.* Sisyrinchium angustifolium. *Blue-eyed Mary.*

Found, during June and July, in moist meadows and pastures amidst grasses.

A few leaves and the flower-stem, from 4 to 8 inches in height, rise from the root.

The leaf is like a grass-blade, fine-pointed, flat, and very thin, especially along the margins; it is slightly ridged with veins, and is smooth. In color, a strong green with a hint of blue.

The 6 petal-like parts of the flower are oblong and blunt-pointed, with an abrupt sharp tip; their texture is thin, and they spread widely. The coloring is charming, a pale or dark blue, with purple markings, and a central design in yellow daintily outlined in purple; the prominent pistil is yellow at the base, and purple above, while its 3-cleft tip is orange. Two or three flowers are closely grouped on a little foot-stem which rises from betwixt two sheath-like leaves set on the summit of the rigidly upright flower-stem. This stem is furnished with thin sword-like margins.

Though not found in abundance generally, this is not an uncommon plant, and occasionally a meadow may be found which every June morning is turned to a sea of blue, like a flax field for fullness of coloring, and every succeeding afternoon becomes green again, because this little Iris shuts her blue eye by mid-day. But one flower blooms on a plant at a time.

AMARYLLIS FAMILY.

AMARYLLIDACEÆ.

*Star Grass.* Hypoxis erecta.

Found in grassy pastures and fields from May to the end of June.

The leaves and flower-stems, from 6 to 8 inches in height, rise together from the ground.

The long, narrow leaf is slightly grooved, with a marked midrib, and a strong fibre; in color, as well as shape, it resembles the grass it grows amidst.

The 6 petal-like, pointed parts of the flower are smooth on the inside and downy without; they spread flat to show the 6 yellow stamens; the inside of the flower is bright yellow, the outside tinged with green. Three or four flowers grow on the summit of the slender shining green stem.

The swing of the curving leaf-blades is admirably graceful.

LILY FAMILY.