IRIS, the Flower de Luce, or Flag-flower, &c. in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the hexandria class of plants.
There are 21 species, all herbaceous flowering perennials, both of the fibrous, tuberous, and bulbous rooted kind, producing thick annual stalks from 3 or 4 inches to a yard high, terminated by large hexapetalous flowers, having three of the petals reflexed quite back and three erect; most of which are very ornamental, appearing in May, June, and July.
Culture. All the species are easily propagated by offsets from the roots, which should be planted in September, October, or November, though almost any time from September to March will do. They may also be raised from seed, which is the best method for procuring varieties. It is to be sown in autumn, soon after it ripens, in a bed or border of common earth,
earth, and raked in. The plants will rise in the spring, and are to be transplanted next autumn.
Properties. The roots of the Florentine white iris, when dry, are supposed to have a pectoral virtue. They have an agreeable smell, resembling that of violets; and hence are used in perfumes, and in flavouring of liquors. When recent, they have a bitter, acrid, nauseous taste; and when taken into the body, prove strongly cathartic; on which account they have been recommended in dropies, in the dose of three or four scruples. — The juice of the species called bastard aconitum, or yellow flag-flower, is also very acrid, and hath been found to produce plentiful evacuations from the bowels when other means had failed. For this purpose, it may be given in doses of 80 drops every hour or two; but the degree of its acrimony is so uncertain, that it can hardly ever come into general use. The fresh roots have been mixed with the food of swine bitten by a mad-dog, and they escaped the disease, when others, bitten by the same dog, died raving mad. Goats eat the leaves when fresh; but cows, horses, and swine, refuse them. Cows will eat them when dry. The roots are used in the island of Jura for dyeing black.