2818
IRIS tuberosa.
Tuberous Iris. Snake’s Head Flower-de-luce.
T R IA N D R IA Monogynia.
Gen. Char. Corolla superior, tubular at the base,
6-cleft, the alternate segments reflexed. Stigmas
3, petal-like, 2-lipped, covering the stamens.
Spec. Char. Corolla beardless. Root tuberous.
Leaves four-sided.
Syn. Iris tuberosa. Linn. Sp. PI. 58. Sibth. Sg Sm.
FI. Grcec. v. 1 .1. 41. Red. Lil. v. 1 .1. 48. Curt.
Bot. Mag. t. 531. Bert. FI. Ital. v. 1. 242. Host.
FI. Austr. v. 1. 49. DeCand. FI. Fr. v. 5. 328.
Lob. Stirp. 51 Cer. Em. 103. f . 3. Park.
Parad. 188. t. 185./. 6. Mor. Oxon.v. 2. 348.
sect. 4. t. 5. Loudon, Mag. of Nat. Hist. v. 4.28.
f . 9 .
Hermodactylus folio quadrangulo. Tourn. Cor. 50.
I n a memoir by the Rev. Mr. Bree of Allesley, in Loudon’s
Magazine of Natural History, as referred to above,
this curious Iris, a native of the Levant and of other countries
bordering on the Mediterranean, and formerly cultivated
for its medicinal qualities, is recorded as established
in two spots in the vicinity of Cork. In the same IVIagazine,
v. b. p. 200, tubers of it are stated to have been received
at the Cambridge Botanic Garden, as of an unknown plant
growing plentifully wild in Cornwall, and near the sea.
Our specimens were kindly sent from Penzance by the Rev.
Henry Pennick, who finds the plant in considerable plenty
in four or five places, “ some miles apart,” in that neighbourhood,
growing in shady situations, in oichards and
hedges, in a damp vegetable soil, under the shelter of