Patersonia
(named after Col. W. Paterson, an English traveller in South Africa of the last century). SYN. Genosiris. ORD. Irideae. A genus comprising nineteen species of handsome, greenhouse, perennial herbs, with short rhizomes, all natives of extra-tropical or subtropical Australia. Flowers two or several in a spathe, rarely solitary, sessile or very shortly pedicellate; perianth blue, or very rarely yellow or white; tube slender, sometimes long; three outer lobes broad and spreading; three inner ones small, erect, sometimes minute or absent; bracts membranous, more or less scarious. Leaves radical, or clustered at the base of the stems, distichous, narrow-linear, grass-like or rigid. The best-known species are described below. They thrive in a sandy-peat compost. Propagation may be effected by division, or by seeds. P. glabrata (glabrous). fl. purple; perianth tube shortly exceeding the bracts; scapes or peduncles one or sometimes two to the stem, rarely exceeding the leaves. June. l. distichous; lower ones very short; upper ones 6in to 12in. long, rarely above two lines broad. Stem slender, 3in. to 6in. high. 1814. SYN. P. media. (L. B. C. 768.) P. glabrata (glabrous), of "Botanical Register." A form of P. sericea. P. glauca (glaucous). fl. blue; perianth tube exceeding the bracts by three to five lines; spike with the two outer bracts 1 1/2in. to 1 3/4in. long, each spikelet bearing three or four flowers; scapes usually much shorter than the leaves, but occasionally exceeding them. June. l. rigid, erect, the longest from 6in. to 18in. long, and nearly two lines broad. Stems very short, clustered on the rhizome, with a few outer scales gradually passing into leaves. 1820. (B. M. 2677; L. B. C. 1182.) P. media (intermediate). A synonym of P. glabrata.
P. occidentalis (Western). fl. usually numerous, rarely only three, in each spikelet; perianth rich blue, the tube shortly exceeding the bracts; outer bracts 1 1/2in. or more long. May, l. rigid, the longest often above 1ft. long, usually two to three lines broad. Stems very short. 1824. (B. R. 1839, 60, under name of P. sapphirina.) P. sapphirina (sapphire-colour-flowered). A synonym of P. occidentalis. P. sericea (silky). fl. deep violet-blue, in a stout and usually many-flowered spike; outer segments of limb broadly ovate; inner ovate or lanceolate; outer bracts 1 1/2in. to 2in. long, at first silky-woolly; scapes usually about 1ft. high. June. l. radical, long, erect, and rigid, rarely above two lines broad, the edges very woolly at base when young. Stems scarcely any. 1803. (B. M. 1041.) P. glabrata (B. R. 51) is regarded, by Bentham, as merely a glabrous from of this species.