Max Leichtlin to European gardens, ostensibly as a native 
of Western Persia, under the name J. Straussi7. In connec- 
tion with the expression of this more comprehensive view it 
may be remarked that Professor Velenovsky, whose local 
knowledge is so exhaustive, admits that I. rubro-marginata, 
Bak., and J. medlita, Janka, are identical, and that Mr. Dykes, 
in his recent authoritative review of the genus, does the 
same. The presence of a purple edging to the leaves and 
spathes, whence J. rubro-marginata derived its name, is, as 
Mr. Dykes has pointed out, an unstable feature. Apart 
from this character the Asia Minor plant, judging from 
herbarium material, differs from the Thracian form mainly 
in having somewhat stouter rhizomes and broader leaves, 
with practically no stems. The plant here figured is, then, 
a “rubro-marginata” without any trace of the purple 
edging. In the specimens of J. Straussii, Leichtl., as 
cultivated at Kew, we find the broad leaves of J. rubro- 
marginata but a distinct stem. The Kew plants are from 
rhizomes communiéated by the late Mr. Leichtlin in 1899, 
the year in which the description of J. Straussii first 
appeared. Mr. Dykes has stated that more than one species 
has been put on the market as I. Straussii ; he even appears 
to doubt whether the J. Straussii originally issued by Mr. 
Leichtlin came from Sultanabad in Persia. “As to the latter 
point it is clear that about 1898 Mr. Leichtlin did receive 
from Mr. Strauss an Jris from Sultanabad which he named 
Z. Straussii in compliment to its contributor. It is also 
certain that Mr. Leichtlin distributed specimens of an Iris 
under that name, and it is certain that the description of J. 
Straussii in the “ Revue Horticole” for 1899 exactly fits the 
plant sent to Kew under the same name in the same year. 
The suggestion that the confusion to which Mr. Dykes 
alludes was created by Mr. Leichtlin at the outset, is not 
borne out by the evidence at our disposal. If such a con- 
fusion arose later on, there is no trace of its existence 
among the plants sent by Mr. Leichtlin to Kew. So far as 
existing knowledge goes, these Thracian, Anatolian and 
Persian plants are not more than forms of the same some- 
what variable species. Janka originally described J. mellita 
as having dull violet or purplish flowers, with a bluish-white 
beard. Velenovsky has in one passage termed them violet 
or greenish-violet ; in another “ most often violet but some- 
