57 



FIG. 33. IBIS RETICULATA. 



armed with a horny point. Leaves and flowers with separate vaginal 

 sheaths. Flower single, sessile, with long tube. Leaves of some length 

 when the flower opens. Spathe- 

 valves green. Fall long, narrow, 

 strap-shaped, with hardly any dis- 

 tinction between claw and blade, of 

 a rich deep violet colour, except that 

 the hind part of the blade bears a 

 low, rounded, bright orange median 

 ridge in the middle of a white patch 

 streaked with violet ; the ridge is 

 replaced along the claw by a yellow 

 streak, marked with dots. The 

 median region of the claw on each 

 side of the streak is marked by in- 

 distinct veins which are lost at the 

 margin in the uniform violet ground- 

 colour. Ripe capsule long, narrow, 

 pointed at each end, borne up above 

 the ground by a peduncle. Very 

 fragrant, odour of violets. 



Time. March, but variable. 



Hab. Occurs sparsely in the Caucasus and surrounding regions. 



I. RETICULATA var. KRELAGEI. Regel, Gartenflora, 

 1873, p. 354. (After Krelage, the Dutch horticulturist.) 



Fig. Loddiges Bot. Cab. 1. 1829; Sweet, Brit. Flow. Gard. 2ndser. 

 ii. t. 189 ; Regel, Gartenflora, 1873, t. 779, fig. 2. 



Charact. Flower shorter and broader in all its parts, and tube 

 shorter than in the type. Blade of fall generally marked off from claw 

 by a slight constriction. Veins on claw of fall very distinct, separate 

 up to the margin. Prevailing colour a red-purple, varying from dingy 

 plum-colour to deep (almost black) purple. Ripe capsule short, broad, 

 and blunt, half buried in soil. Different plants vary much in size, in 

 the length of the tube, in the relative breadth of the fall, the exact 

 shape of the blade of the fall, which in some is narrower, longer, more 

 pointed than in others, and in the shape and character of edge, whether 

 serrated or not, of the crests of the styles. Sometimes, but rarely, 

 fragrant. 



Time. February or March ; variable, but generally somewhat 

 earlier than the type. 



Hab. Common in the Caucasus, and spreading into Persia and 

 Asia Minor. 



I. RETICULATA var. HISTRIO. I. Histrio, Reichenbach 

 fil. Bot. Zeit. 1872, p. 388. (From histrio, a stage-player, as if 

 painted for the stage.) 



