Volume Ii Part 7 (2/2)

[58]

~Iris spuria. Spurious Iris.~

_Cla.s.s and Order._

~Triandria Monogynia.~

_Generic Character._

_Corolla_ 6-petala, inaequalis, petalis alternis geniculato-patentibus.

_Stigmata_ petaliformia, cucullato-bil.a.b.i.ata. _Conf. Thunb._ _Diss. de Iride._

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

IRIS _spuria_ imberbis foliis linearibus, scapo subtrifloro tereti, germinibus hexagonis. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. p. 91._ _Jacq. Fl. austr.

tab. 4._

IRIS pratensis angustifolia, folio foetido. _Bauh. Pin. 32._

The greater blue Flower-de-luce with narrow leaves. _Park. Parad. p.

184._

[Ill.u.s.tration: 58]

Some plants afford so little diversity of character, that an expressive name can scarcely be a.s.signed them; such is the present plant, or LINNaeUS would not have given it the inexpressive name of _spuria_, nor we have adopted it.

This species is distinguished by the narrowness of its leaves, which emit a disagreeable smell when bruised, by the colour of its flowers, which are of a fine rich purple inclining to blue, and by its hexangular germen.

It is a native of Germany, where, as Professor JACQUIN informs us, it grows in wet meadows; is a hardy perennial, thrives in our gardens in almost any soil or situation, flowers in June, and is propagated by parting its roots in Autumn.

[59]

~Mesembryanthemum bicolorum. Two-Coloured Fig-Marigold.~

_Cla.s.s and Order._

~Icosandria Pentagynia.~

_Generic Character._

_Cal._ 5-fidus. _Petala_ numerosa, linearia. _Caps._ carnosa, infera, polysperma.

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