Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1817 edition. Excerpt: ... IRIS VERSICOLOR. Blue Flag, or Flower de luce. PLATE XVI. Jln the Hortus Elthamensis, published by John J. Dillenius in 1732, there are figures of two plants under the name of "Iris Americana versicolor," the one with an entire, the other with a crenate style. To one of these, the plant represented in our plate apparently belongs. This plant however is so subject to variation in the colour of its flowers, the crcnaturcs and direction of its stigmas, #jc. that it has received from different botanists dissimilar names. The Linnsean characters of Iris versicolor and Virginica are hardly sufficient to distinguish them from each other. Our plant is the Iris versicolor of Muhlenburgh's catalogue, by his own declaration. In the character of its stem however, it agrees equally well with Iris virginica of Linnseus and Michaux. It may be doubted whether the plant figured in the Botanical Magazine, t. 703, is more than a variety of this species. The characters taken from the comparative length of the stem and leaves, of the inner petals and stigmas, and the direction of the stem and of the stigmas; are all subject to variation. Michaux, Elliott and Pursh make the Virginica synonymous with Iris hexagona of Walter, which seems permanently distinguished by the deep furrows in the angles of its capsule. The Iris versicolor is found throughout the United States in the borders of swamps and in wet meadows, of which it forms a principal ornament in the month of June. No race of vegetables can be better marked than the elegant genus to which this plant belongs. They are essentially distinguished by a corolla, parted into six segments or petals, of which three are reflected and three are erect. The stigmas resembling petals. The species in our plate has...
