These doe flower vsually in the end of May, or beginning of Iune, and their seede is ripe in the end of Iuly or August.
The Names.
Lobel calleth the first English blew Flowerdeluce, Hyacinthus Poetarum flore Iridis, & propter Hyacinthinum colorem, id est violaceum dictus: but I know not any great good ground for it, more then the very colour; for it is neither of the forme of a Lilly, neither hath it those mourning markes imprinted in it, which the Poet faineth to bee in his Hyacinth. It is most truely called an Iris, or Flowerdeluce (and there is great difference betweene a Lilly and a Flowerdeluce, for the formes of their flowers) because it answereth thereunto very exactly, for the flower, and is therefore called vsually by most, either Iris bulbosa Anglica, or Iris bulbosa maior siue latifolia, for a difference betweene it, and the lesser with narrow leaues: In English, eyther The great English bulbous Flowerdeluce, or the great broad leafed bulbous Flowerdeluce, which you will, adding the other name, according to the colour.
{Bulbous Flowerdeluce with narrow leaves}
And thus much for these broad leafed bulbous Flowerdeluces, so much as hath come to our knowledge. Now to the seuerall varieties of the narrow leafed bulbous Flowerdeluces, so much likewise as we haue been acquainted with.
Iris bulbosa minor siue angustifolia alba. The smaller white or narrow leafed bulbous Flowerdeluce.
This first Flowerdeluce, which beareth the smaller flower of the two white ones, that are here to bee described, springeth out of the ground alwaies before Winter, which after breaketh forth into foure or fiue small and narrow leaues, a foote long or more, of a whitish greene on the inside, which is hollow and chanalled, and of a blewish greene colour on the outside, and round withall: the stalke of this kinde is longer and slenderer then the former, with some shorter leaues vpon it, at the toppe whereof, out of short skinny leaues, stand one or two flowers, smaller, shorter, and rounder then the flowers of the former broad leafed Flowerdeluces, but made after the same proportion with nine leaues, three falling downewards, with a yellow spot in the middle, other three are made like a long arch, which couer the lower part next the stalke of those falling leaues, and turne vp at the ends of them, where they are diuided into two parts: the other three stand vpright, betweene each of the three falling leaues, being somewhat long and narrow: the flower is wholly, (sauing the yellow spot) of a pure white colour, yet in some hauing a shew of some blew throughout, and in others towards the bottome of the three vpright leaues: after the flowers are past, there rise vp so many long cods or seede vessels, as there were flowers, which are longer and smaller then in the former, and a little bending like a Corner, with three round squares, and round pointed also, which diuiding it selfe when the seede is ripe into three parts, doe shew six seuerall cells or places, wherein is contained such like round reddish yellow seedes, but smaller then the former: the roote is smaller and shorter then the former, and without any haires or threeds, couered with browne thin skinnes, and more plentifull in giuing encrease.
Iris bulbosa angustifolia alba flore maiore. The greater white narrow leafed bulbous Flowerdeluce.
I shall not neede to make a seuerall description to euery one of these Flowerdeluces that follow, for that were but to make often repetition of one thing, which being once done, as it is, may well serue to expresse all the rest, and but onely to adde the especiall differences, either in leafe or flower, for bignesse, colour, or forme, as is expedient to expresse and distinguish them seuerally. This greater white bulbous Flowerdeluce is like vnto the last described in all parts, sauing that it is a little larger and higher, both in leafe, stalke, and flower, and much whiter then any of these mixed sorts that follow, yet not so white as the former: the roote hereof is likewise a little bigger and rounder in the middle.
Albescens.
Milke white.