44 



when the best forms of it become known, it will be exceedingly 

 popular. 



I. Bosenbachiana, as I have just said, shows some signs of 

 breaking away from the Juno group. Still more divergent is an 

 Iris found in Afghanistan, which was discovered by Dr. Aitchison 

 not far from Pendjeh of sinister notoriety, and which he has done 

 me the honour to name after me I. Fosteriana (fig. 26). This 



we may include in the 

 Juno group, and yet 

 it shows many affini- 

 ties with the Xiphium 

 group. The leaves are 

 scanty and narrow, al- 

 most linear in fact. A 

 stem, a foot or even 

 more high, with clasp- 

 ing leaves, bears one, or 

 sometimes two, flowers. 

 The standards of the 

 flower are, as in Junos, 

 not erect, but spread out 

 horizontally, or rather 

 turned downwards ; but, 

 unlike other Junos, so 

 far from being minute, 

 or even small, they are 

 relatively as large as in 

 the Xiphium group. In 

 the fall the claw has no 

 lateral wings, but is 

 narrow, suddenly ex- 

 panding into a broad 

 blade ; and the crests 

 of the styles are of 

 moderate size only. In 



all these points I. Fosteriana approaches the Xiphium group. 

 And in correspondence with these features the bulb (fig. 27) is 

 peculiar ; it is thin and slender, covered with several membra- 

 nous olive-green wrappings, and the fleshy roots so characteristic 

 of the Juno group are very feebly developed ; they do exist, but 



FIG. 26. IKIS FOSTERIANA. 



