APOGON 83 



easily recognised under various names by its narrow hard 

 leaves, flowers of some shade of lilac, and its six-ribbed 

 and beaked fruit. /. Guldenstaediana, which can hardly 

 be separated as more than a variety, has yellow or 

 yellowish flowers. The whole plant is strongly fibrous 

 and tough. The rhizome is stout, short creeping, 

 sheaths splitting into fibres. The leaves are linear, glau- 

 cescent, about a foot long and |- in. broad in the type. 

 The stems overtop the leaves, bearing I to 3 spicate 

 heads and 3 to 4 reduced leaves ; spathes, 2 or 3 flowered, 

 2 to 3 in. long, valves green lanceolate ; pedicels shorter 

 than the spathe. The perianth-tube is to f in. long, 

 limb lilac, l| to 2 in. long ; falls with an orbicular blade, 

 \ in. broad and half as long as the haft, the latter keeled 

 with yellow and veined with lilac on a pale ground ; 

 standards rather shorter, oblanceolate, \ to \ in. broad ; 

 crests small and deltoid. The capsule, as above men- 

 tioned, is beaked and ribbed. There are several varieties. 



Falls faintly bearded down the haft, 

 spathe-valves puberulous at the 

 apex. var. subbarbata. 



(/. subbarbata , Joo.) 

 Segments pale lilac, haft of falls 

 bright yellow, standards bor- 

 dered with yellow. var. desertorum. 

 (/. desertorum, Ker in Bot. Mag., 

 \ t. 1514.) 



More robust than type with leaves 

 an inch broad, flowering stems 

 2 to 3 ft. long, flowers and 

 spathe-valves larger. Native 

 Caucasus to Kashmir. var. notha. 



(/. notha, Bieb ; 7. halophila, Ker in 

 Bot. Mag., t. 875 ; /. spuria, 

 Red. Lil., t. 349.) 



