This flower family is composed of perennial herbs growing in moist places and having long, linear or sword-shaped leaves and large showy flowers. Iris is named from the Greek, meaning "rainbow" and it is certainly no misnomer. The perpetuation of this species in healthy condition is insured by the formation of the flower, which is such that self-pollenization is practically impossible. The stamens are directly under the strap-like divisions of the style and the stigma is on the upper surface of the rolled-up tip. Bees frequently visit this flower.

Blue Iris; Fleur-De-Lis (Iris versicolor). Flower solitary, from a green spathe at the end of a long peduncle; sepals, neither bearded or crested, but broad, violet and handsomely veined; petals erect, flat, and spatulate. Leaves sword-shaped, glaucous-green, folded into flat clusters at the base. Very common from Newfoundland to Manitoba and southward, flowering from May to July.

The Blue-Eyed Grass Iris, as one would suspect from the name, has grass-like leaves and flowers that make one think of bright little blue eyes as they peep out of the meadow grass in which these flowers can be found.

The Blue-Eyed Grasses have been separated into thirteen flower species, differing chiefly in the comparative lengths of the flower spathes, or the lengths of the leaves as compared to the flower stem. The six divisions of the flower are regular, violet, with a yellow or white star-shaped center; each sepal is blunt, with a thorn like tip. Common from N.B. to B.C. and southward.

Crested Dwarf Iris (Iris cristata). Flowers usually solitary, very delicate in form, and of a light violet color; the sepals have a central crested rib of a bright orange color; the smaller petals are also crested. The tube is long and thread-like. Leaves lanceolate, about 5 -7 inches long; those forming the spathe are ovate-lanceolate. This attractive little flower in found on rich wooded hillsides and along streams, from Maryland and Indiana southward, flowering in April and May.