21 



The Spanish Iris, like the English Iris, has been largely pro- 

 pagated by seeding, and we now possess a very large number of 

 varieties of many tints of blue, blue-purple, purple, yellow, and 

 white, many of the flowers being parti-coloured, and a peculiar 

 effect being produced in some by the admixture of brown, giving 

 a bronzy hue. In all these we may recognise the two types of 

 which I just spoke variously intermingled. To those which show 

 traces of descent from the lusitanica stock such, for instance, 

 as " Sultane " the turbinate arrangement of the parts, and the 

 way in which the styles are overlapped laterally by the broad 

 claws of the falls, confer on the flower an aspect which contrasts 

 strongly with that of a flower such, for instance, as " Don 

 Carlos " having the characters of the type, the falls being nearly 

 horizontal as well as long and narrow, so that the centre of the 

 flower is much more open, much less closed up. As a rule, the 

 varieties which affect the lusitanica form also tend to be yellow, 

 and those with the more typical characters are chiefly blue ; but 

 this rule is by no means closely followed. Some very beautiful 

 varieties have the falls of a pure yellow and the standards of a 

 lovely blue. 



When a number of plants [are examined, very many small 

 differences in the shape of the parts are met with, such as the 

 relative breadth and length of the fall, and the depth of the 

 constriction which separates the claw from the blade, in the 

 relative length and breadth of the standard, and in the presence 

 or absence of a notch at its apex, and in the crests of the styles, 

 which are generally broad and quadrate, but may be narrow and 

 almost triangular. The standards are sometimes widely spread 

 out, very divergent, but sometimes are connivent, almost meeting 

 in the centre ; sometimes they are very twisted, but sometimes 

 quite straight. 



So far as one can judge from the old descriptions, such as 

 those of Parkinson, and from old figures, preserved in the British 

 Museum and elsewhere, several striking varieties known in old 

 times have been lost to cultivation. We possess one marked 

 variety of vigorous growth, with striking bronze flowers, com- 

 monly known as " The Thunderbolt " (fig. 15), but sometimes 

 called " sordida " : erroneously, since it has nothing to do with the 

 I. sordida of Salisbury. This, which seems to have been known 

 to Parkinson, unlike the other varieties, rarely bears seed ; and 



