90 THE BOOK OF THE IRIS 



green colour. The inflorescence, a lax panicle, is sup- 

 ported by a stem as long as the leaves. The spathes 

 are composed of several lanceolate valves, producing 

 three or four flowers in succession. They are rather 

 fugitive, but of most lovely lilac colour. The perianth- 

 tube is f in. long ; the standards and falls are both 

 spreading, about I or ij in. long, the former about f 

 in. broad, the latter rather less. The falls are crisped 

 and fimbriated at the edge, ornamented with yellow 

 at the throat, and have a ciliated petaloid crest with 

 other faint ridges. The style branches are | to f in. 

 long, and their appendages are deeply fimbriated. 

 Culture is quite easy in a greenhouse with ordinary 

 treatment. The plant is too tender for growing out-of- 

 doors ; though it lives at the foot of a wall in the Cam- 

 bridge Botanic Garden, it seems little inclined to flower. 

 On the Riviera it is sometimes very effective, and would 

 be worth trying on the southern shores of Devon and 

 Cornwall ; it is a native of China and Japan. 



38. I. Milesii, Foster in Card. Chron., 1883, i., 231 ; 

 Baker in Bot. Mag., t. 6889. This is a good ornamental 

 plant, and is looked upon as quite hardy. It should still 

 have a sheltered position, and may be planted at the foot 

 of a greenhouse wall. A good figure will be found in 

 the Botanical Magazine prepared from a specimen which 

 flowered in the Cambridge Botanic Garden in May 

 1886. The leaves are pale green and slightly glaucous, 

 about 2 ft. long, reducing upwards to the inflorescence. 

 The spathes are many-flowered, and about I J to I J in. 

 long, pedicels articulated at the apex and as long as the 

 spathes. The flowers are not quite 4 in. across, the tube 

 is |- in. long, falls claret-purple about f to I in. broad, 

 with pale centre conspicuously spotted and veined with 

 lilac, and furnished with a sharply toothed yellow crest, 

 so finely divided as to suggest that this plant furnishes 

 a link with the bearded Irises. The hairs clearly pro- 



