What is generally considered as the typical I. reticulata 

 is a familiar and beloved plant. Nearly all gardeners know 

 its beautiful deep violet fragrant flowers, with the long narrow 

 fall* stretched out nearly on the level, and bearing just in 

 front of the stigma a bright golden or orange patch, which, 

 forming a charming contrast to the deep violet of the rest of 

 the blade, serves as a "signal" for the insects, showing them 

 the mouth of the path which leads to the nectar at the stamen's 

 base. Also well known is the less handsome form known as the 

 variety Krelagei, with its broader segments and more purple, 

 not unfrequently dull-coloured flowers, which, moreover, are 

 rarely fragrant. The former is called the type, because it is 

 the one which was first described, namely, by Marschal von 

 Bieberstein, early in this century (having been discovered, Sweet 

 says, by Adams, who sent the plant to Bieberstein), whereas the 

 variety Krelagei was not described (and then by Regel) until long 

 afterwards. But in the native country of the two, the south- 

 eastern regions of the Caucasus, the variety Krelagei is not only 

 much more variable, but also far more abundant than the type. 

 The variety Krelagei is abundant in the neighbourhood of Tiflis, 

 and all the specimens of imported bulbs during the last few 

 years which have come into my hands have been of this variety ; 

 so far I have not come across any specimen of the type brought 

 direct from its native habitat. Moreover, seedlings of the type 

 turn out in many cases to have all the characters of the variety 



* I use the familiar term "fall " instead of " outer perianth segment " 

 or "sepal," and in like manner " standard " instead of "inner perianth 

 segment " or " petal." Each consists of a terminal " blade," usually ex- 

 panded, and attached to the rest of the flower by a "claw" or "haft," 

 which is usually narrower than the blade, and in the case of the fall 

 frequently marked off from it by a constriction. The three parts forming 

 the centre of the flower are sometimes called " petaloid stigmas " ; each 

 consists of a body overhanging the stamen, united at the base with its 

 fellows into a column, and ending above in two triangular, quadrate, or other- 

 wise shaped " crests " of variable size. Immediately below the crests is a 

 horizontal ledge of variable size and form projecting towards the blade of 

 the fall, and so arranged that an insect brushes against the upper surface as 

 it crawls into the sort of tunnel formed by the body of the style above 

 and the claw of the fall below. It is this upper surface, and this only, which 

 is the true stigma, and on which the insect visiting the flower deposits the 

 pollen which it has gathered from another flower; all the rest is simply 

 " style." We may imagine the body or stem of the style to divide at its upper 

 end into three leaves or branches, one of which becomes the " stigma " proper, 

 while the other two are modified into the often very conspicuous "crests." 

 Since the ovary is composed of three united carpels, each of which has a 

 right to a style, I prefer to speak of three styles united at their bases, rather 

 than, as Mr. Baker does, of one style dividing into three " style branches." 



