io 4 THE BOOK OF THE IRIS 



is marked with vertical brown purple stripes. The 

 diameter of the flower is about gf in., and its height 

 about 3^. These and other dimensions are taken from 

 the full-page illustration in the Gardeners 1 Chronicle, 

 quoted above. This Iris was sent to Messrs van 

 Tubergen by their collector from the mountain range 

 which separates Persia from Trans-Caucasia, 120 versts 

 to the west of Askabad. 



51. I. acutiloba, C. A. Meyer, Ind. Cauc. 32 ; Regel, 

 Gartenfora, t. 8 1 2, fig. I. Rarely in cultivation. The 

 rhizome is distinctly creeping. The leaves are slender, 

 narrow, exceedingly curved, the tip bending to ground 

 3 to 4 in. long at flowering time, J to \ in. broad. The 

 stem is I to 2 in. high ; spathe 2 in. Jong ; valves green 

 and membranous ; pedicel very short. The perianth- 

 tube is an inch long, limbs 2 in. long ; falls oblong, 

 I to ij in. long, or strap-shaped with lanceolate blade, 

 \ in. wide, sharply reflexing from half-way down. The 

 standards are much larger, erect, with wavy margin twice 

 as broad as the fall. The style branches are an inch 

 long, the crests small and deltoid. The falls are veined 

 with brown black on a pale brown ground. They have 

 an irregular signal patch of deep purple, and beneath 

 the style is densely covered with dark purple hairs ; the 

 standards paler, copiously veined. In a plant cultivated 

 by Sir Michael Foster the body of the fall is creamy 

 white, marked with thick purple veins and tinged towards 

 the front of the blade with brown ; the standard is creamy 

 white, suffused with brown and marked with closely set, 

 thin purple veins ; the style is pale greenish yellow 

 striped with rows of purple dots. The plant probably 

 varies in colour considerably, but may always be recog- 

 nised by its narrow-pointed segments, its reflexing falls, 

 which are only half the width of standards, and by its 

 short stem. A native of the Caucasus and mountains of 

 Northern Persia. 



