·noun A genus of endogenous herbs with grassy leaves and small yellow flowers in short, scaly-bracted spikes; yellow-eyed grass. There are about seventeen species in the Atlantic United States.
xyris, ĭdis, f., = ξυρίς, wild iris , Plin. 21, 20, 83, § 143. ...
A New Latin Dictionary by Charlton T. Lewis Ph.D. and Charles Short, LL. D.