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what different, (lci)en(lin^- upon the varieties tised in tlie ori^'inal 

 crt).ss. 



Beardless Iris Project 



By George A1. Reed 



Japanese Ins {Ins kacmpi en) 



Since most of the varieties of Japanese Iris had l)een trans- 

 planted in 1927 and had heconie ^ve]l estal)lished, they gave al)un- 

 clant hlooni during- the ])ast season. The first varieties came into 

 flower a few days earlier than usual, 1)ut the flowering period was 

 greatly shortened due to the excessive]}^ dry weather in July. 

 It was possihle, however, to obtain excellent material for the com- 

 parison of the different varieties, and considerable ])rogress was 

 made in their ])roper identification. Most of the varieties were 

 also classified on the basis of the scheme of classification which 

 we had previously worked out. 



The most im]:iortant addition to the collection was seventy-five 

 varieties obtained from T. Sakata & Co., a nursery in Japan, 

 'fhe i^lants arrived in the first ])art of r\lay in fairly good con- 

 dition and most of them survived the adverse season ; in fact a 

 very few produced flowers. It is hojjed that these varieties are 

 reasonably true to name and, if so, they -will l)e very valuable in 

 aiding in the proper identification of varieties now in the collection. 



All the varieties of Ja])anese Iris were divided and reset during 

 the late summer and early fall. In the new beds, so far as jiossible, 

 they were grouped according to otu' color scheme of classification. 

 Very similar varieties will thus be growing beside each other, and 

 it will be possible to more conveniently make accurate com])arisons, 

 A large number of correctly named varieties ha\-e l)een planted 

 along the Erook on the main grounds of the (iarden. 



In cooperation with Mrs. W. II. Peckham, who was prepar- 

 ing the new checklist of Iris names, we looked n\) the history of 

 the varieties of the Japanese grf)U]). L iK|nesti(Miab]v, the worst 

 tangle of names among Iris is to be found among the Japanese 

 varieties, and the complete story will be very difficult to work 

 out. However, in time we may be able to secure a fairly accurate 

 history of most of them. The great dilficnlty is to obtain the 

 early catalogues of dealers who listed these i)lants. Information 



