41 



studied from dried specimens only, really represents more than 

 one species. 



Let me now turn from these Juno Irises of little to one of 

 great garden value. Though I. caucasica or I. orchioides spreads 

 from Turkestan into Bokhara, there is found also in the latter 

 country a very beautiful Iris, I. Bosenbachiana (fig. 25), which is 

 a Juno Iris, but lacks some of the characters which I have stated 

 to be distinctive of the group. The fall never possesses the lateral 

 expansions or flanges on the claw which, as we have seen, are 

 so striking in nearly all other Juno Irises ; it is, in fact, almost 

 strap- shaped ; and the standard, though small and spreading 

 horizontally, or even deflexed, is relatively larger than in most 

 other Juno Irises. The bulb, too, has characters by which it may 

 be readily recognised ; the fleshy roots are numerous but very 

 short, frequently ovoid in form, not long and finger-like as in other 

 Juno Irises, so that at a little distance the bulb looks as if it 

 bore at its base a number of smaller whitish bulbs turned the 

 wrong way, pointing downwards instead of upwards. The plant 

 sends up its bloom while the leaves are exceedingly short, almost, 

 indeed, before they have appeared, so that the chief growth of 

 the foliage takes place after blooming is over ; and though the 

 one, two, or even three flowers which the bulb throws up are 

 really borne on a stem, this is so short that the flowers appear 

 wholly sessile. 



These, however, are botanical features ; but the garden value 

 of the plant is due to the colour of the flower, which, in at least 

 a large number of cases, is of striking beauty. I make this 

 qualified statement because the species, though varying little in 

 form and not greatly in size, is exceedingly variable in colour. 

 If I were to adopt the practice common among " florists," and 

 give a separate name to each plant which differed in any way in 

 colour from its fellows, I could, I think, easily make a list of 

 something like a hundred named varieties. In fact, hardly any 

 two plants are ["exactly alike, and while some are extremely 

 handsome, others are poor, or even ugly. The dominant colour 

 is a combination of purple, yellow, and white ; in some the purple 

 is a red-purple passing into a rich crimson, in others the purple 

 is a blue-purple passing into a dull or dingy lavender ; and the 

 late Dr. von Regel made two varieties a red and a blue variety. 

 But the differences, as I have just said, are almost innumerable ; 



