Iris prismatica.
sheathing, ventricose, acuminate. Germ obscurely prismatic, small,
rarely exceeding during inflorescence, a quarter or half an inch,
swelling and becoming elongated soon after the flower fades, and
finally becoming a large, distinct, prismatic capsule. Flowers campanula
purple, smaller than those of the generality of the species. Petals
spathulate, obtuse, paler and often white towards the base. Stigmas
linear, incurved. Grows in damp places in the vicinity of water
courses, sometimes but rarely found in exsiccated thickets. Not common,
nor very abundant where found. Flowers in July.
The genus Iris is the ipn otth e ancient Greeks, so named from the
various, and somewhat concentric hues of the flowers, which give an
idea of the rain-bow. The modern Greeks call it and the Turks
susen, both which words are synonymous with the English word lily,
and the French fleur-de-lis.
The present species was first particularly described by Pursh. It had
previously been confounded with his Virginica, under which name
it stands in the catalogue and borders of Kingsessing or Bartram’s
Gardens. In the neighbourhood of this city it is found near Kaighn’s
point on the Jersey side of the Delaware—it is occasionally met with
along the banks of the Schuylkill a little south of Bartram’s gardens.
The table represents a flowering portion of its natural size, the
radical leaves however, being four times as long as the largest of the
figure.