XIPHION 169 



however, there is a slight constriction. The falls spread 

 horizontally, so that the flower is less funnel-shaped than 

 in the type. The style arms are triangular and short, 

 with large, rather quadrangular crests. The prevailing 

 colour is bright blue, sometimes assuming a light violet 

 hue. In some specimens the whole blade and claw 

 outside the ridge is of uniform blue, broken only by 

 veins of deeper colour ; in others the margin only of the 

 fall is so coloured, and the region between the margin 

 and the median ridge is, as in Histrio, of creamy white, 

 broken by irregular dots and blotches of blue and by 

 imperfect veins. Intermediate forms occur. The flowers 

 are fragrant in a warm atmosphere. Flowers in March, 

 but is variable in relation to other varieties. In the 

 Cambridge Botanic Garden flowers have expanded 

 immediately after a temperature nearly down to zero, 

 and there can therefore be no doubt of hardiness. Is 

 native of Armenia, in the district of Amasia. 



1190. I. reticulata var. purpurea, Max Leichtlin; 

 Foster in Bulbous Irises, p. 60. This is intermediate 

 between Krelagei and sophenensis, flowering at about the 

 same time as the former. The leaves are 2 to 3 in. high, 

 or less, at flowering time. The tube is short, hardly 

 longer than the spathe-valves. The median ridge of fall, 

 unlike the case of var. Krelagei, is continued all along the 

 claw. The colour is a fine deep red-purple, darker on 

 the blade of fall, the claw of which is not broken up into 

 veins at the sides as in var. Krelagei. Is not distinctly 

 fragrant. A native of Asia Minor in the neighbourhood 

 of Egin. 



