Tah. 7867. 

 IRIS Gatesh. 



'Native of Kurdistan. 



Nat. Ord. Ibide*:, — Tribe Mou.EEiE. 

 Genus Ibis, Linn. ; {Bent/i. & Hooh.f. Gen. Plant, vol. iii. p. 686.) 



Ikis (Oncocyclns) Gatesii; rhizomate crasso, foliis radicalibns 4-5, 1-1| 

 pedalibus ^-5 poll, latis linearibns acuminatis planiuBculis jiallide glauco- 

 viridibus, canle 2-3-pedali robutto tnonocephalo, spathis 4^5-pollicaribu8 

 pallide viridibas, flora maximo, pedicelio brevi, perianthii tubo brevi, 

 Begmentis exterioribus reflexis 3 poll, latis orbiculari-obovatis creberrime 

 etriolatia pallide roseo-lilacinia medio flavo suffusis striis punctia 

 miuntia discum versus majoribus conspersis, basi et ungne pilis 

 erectis fiisco-pnrpureis ornatis, se^meutis interioribus longioribus 

 eiectis incurvis late obovatis disco albo-flavido margines versus pallide 

 azureia azureo-punctatis et a basi ultra medium costis 3 purpurascentibus 

 percurris, stylo 2-poll. lato bipartite segmeotis quadratia divaricatis 

 dentatis sinu acuto, capaula 5-pollicari. 



I. Gatesii, Fast, in Lecture on Iris, May lUh, 1889, ex Journ. Hort. Soc. Land. 

 si. (1890), p. 144, noinen ; in Garcl. Ckron. 1890, vol. ii. p. 18, f. 3 ; in Garden, 

 vol. xliii. (1893), p. 132 cum ie. color., et ic. xylog. reduct. Mickeli, in 

 JBicll. n. Soc. T08C. Ort. Ser. II. vol. vii. (1892), p. 296, t. 10; in Rev. 

 Mortic. vol. Ixiv. (1892), p. 302. Baker, Handb. Irid. p. 18.- 



In point of size of flowers, I. Gatesii is, as far as is at 

 present known, the monarch of the Irises. It belongs to 

 a section {Oncocyclns) of the genus conspicuous in tliis 

 respect, of which five have been figured in this magazine, 

 namely, I. susiana, Linn. t. 91 ; I Lortetii, Barb. t. 7251 ; 

 J. Sari, Schott. var. hcrida, Boiss. t. 6960; /. iherica, 

 Hoffm. t. 58 i7, and /. 2^aradoxa, Stev. t. 7081. All of 

 the section are Oriental, ranging from Asia Minor and 

 Syria to Persia. 



I. Gatesii was introduced into cultivation by Mr. Max 

 Leichtlin, who obtained it from Mr. Sintenis, its dis- 

 coverer in the mountains of Kurdistan, in Mesopo- 

 tamia, near the town of Mardin, about sixty miles south of 

 Diarbekir. It is named by Sir Michael Foster after his 

 friend, the Rev. F. S. Gates, of the American Mission at 

 that town. Mardin is described as situated on a lofty 

 limestone hill, overlooking a large fertile plain, and is 

 distinguished for the salubrity of its climate, and for con- 

 taining substantially built Chaldean, Syrian, Catholic, 



DjJC£iIBEK liT, 1902. 



