In Botany Iris, the generic name of a number of beautiful plants belonging to the natural order iridacece. The plants of this order are endogenous, having a creeping rootstock (rhizoma), or else a flat tuber (cormus), equitant leaves, irregular flowers, three stamens, and an inferior ovary. They are represented equally in the temperate and hotter regions of the globe. The wild species of iris are generally called blue-flag, and the cultivated flower-de-luce, from the French fleur de Louis, it having been the device of Louis VII. of France. Our commonest blue-flag, I. versicolor, is a widely distributed plant, its violet-blue flowers, upon stems 1 to 3 ft. high, being conspicuous in wet places in early summer; the root of this possesses cathartic and diuretic properties, and is used by some practitioners. The slender blue-flag, I. Virginica, found in similar localities near the Atlantic coast, is smaller in all its parts. A yellowish or reddish brown species, resembling the first named in appearance, is I. cuprea, found In Illinois and southward. There are three native species which grow only about 6 in. high and have blue flowers: I. verna and I. cristata, in Virginia and southward, and I. lacustris, on the shores of the great lakes; these are sometimes seen as garden plants.

The orris root of the shops is the produce of 1. Florentina, I. pallida, and I. Germanica, which grow wild in the south of Europe; the rhizomes are pared and dried, and exported from Trieste and Leghorn, chiefly for the use of perfumers; they have the odor of violets. The garden species of iris are numerous, and these by hybridizing and crossing have produced a great many known only by garden names. The dwarf iris, I. pumila, from 3 to 6 in. high, flowers very early and makes good edgings to borders; the common flower-de-luce of the gardens is I. Germanica; the elder-scented flower-de-luce is I. sambucina. There are several with yellow and brownish flowers, among which are I. pseudacorus and I. flavescens; the recently introduced I. Iberica presents a remarkable combination of colors. These and many others are hardy in our climate, and readily multiplied by division of their rootstocks. I. Susiana, the mourning or crape iris, is one of the finest of the genus, its flowers being very large, dotted and striped with purple on a gray ground. In the northern states it needs winter protection.

There are several species of iris with bulbous roots, and highly ornamental, such as the Spanish iris (I. xiphoides) and the Persian iris (I. Persica) with exquisitely scented blossoms of an elegant pearly whitish hue, admirably adapted to forcing in pots for the drawing room.

Iris Florentine.

Mourning Iris (Iris Susiana).