74 THE BOOK OF THE IRIS 



stem is slender, shorter than the leaves, compressed, 

 one-headed, and bearing one or two large leaves. The 

 spathe is two-flowered, valves lanceolate, about 2 in. long; 

 pedicels I to 2 in. long. The perianth-tube is nearly 

 obsolete; limb deep lilac and conspicuously veined; falls 

 with orbicular blade J in. broad, much shorter than the 

 broad haft ; standards oblanceolate, erect, nearly as long, 

 ^ in. broad. The capsule is small and suddenly rostrate. 

 It is native from France to Greece and the Caucasus. 

 Mr Baker refers to /. sylvestris, Balbis, as a robust variety 

 with leaves J to J in. broad ; also to /. lamprophylla, 

 Lange, in Bot. Tids., xiii. 17, t. I, which differs by its 

 broader leaves, more scariose spathe-valves and larger 

 flowers. In the Cambridge Botanic Garden is grown a 

 variety inodora and a variety latifolia. A merit of this 

 plant is that it grows readily on any bed or border. 



18. I. longipetala, Herb. ; Hook. fil. in Bot. Mag., t. 

 5298. The rhizome is stout, sheaths slitting into coarse 

 fibres. The leaves are firm, I to ij ft. long, J to | in. 

 broad, and glaucous. The stem is stout, solid, com- 

 pressed, I to ij ft. long, bearing one or two linear 

 leaves and a single head. The spathes are two to four 

 flowered, outer valves green, linear or lanceolate, 3 to 4 

 in. long, and pedicels I to 3 in. long. The perianth- 

 tube is nearly obsolete ; limb bright lilac, 2 J to 3 in. 

 long ; falls obovate, an inch or more broad, the claw 

 keeled with yellow and copiously veined with violet on 

 a white ground ; the standards are much shorter, oblan- 

 ceolate, \ in. broad; style branches ij in. long; crests 

 large and deltoid. 



Var. montana, Baker (see accompanying plate). This 

 is a smaller plant, dwarfer, less spreading, or hardly at 

 all spreading, leaves narrower, ^ to J in. broad, with 

 smaller flowers. It is figured in the Botanical Magazine, 

 1 88 1, t. 6579? as ! miss our iensis, under which name it is 

 well known. 



