62 



Syn. 1. Bornmiilleri (Haussknecht, Flora, 1889, p. 140). 



Fig. Bot. Mag. t. 7140 ; Garden, xxxvii. (1890), p. 462 ; Garten- 

 flora, 39 (1890), t. 1327. 



Charact. Bulb with netted coat. Leaf four-sided, armed with 

 horny point. The flower, one to two inches across, appears with or even 

 f S St before the leaves. Claw of fall narrow, sud- 



denly expanding into an ovate blade. On the 

 blade is a conspicuous median orange ridge, 

 continued on along the claw. Standard re- 

 duced to a mere bristle, invisible at a little 

 distance. Style short, triangular, with large 

 quadrangular crests. Whole flower funnel- 

 shaped, the blade of the fall spreading hori- 

 zontally, not deflexed. Colour of all the 

 parts a rich yellow, with variable dark brown 



dots on the blade of the fall near the ridge 

 FIG. 40,-lKis DANFOHDI*. and ftlong ^ ^^ 



Time. February ; sometimes even earlier. 



Hab. Asia Minor : Cilician Taurus, near Mount Amascha ; 

 Amasia, Egin. 



NOTE. Mr. Baker, in his original description (loc. ind.) of I. Dan- 

 fordise gathered in the Cilician Taurus, states that the coats of the 

 bulb are membranous. Haussknecht, in his description (loc. ind.} of 

 1. Bornmiilleri, states that the coats are reticulate (fibroso-reticulatis), 

 and by this differentiates it from I. Danfordise. In his " Handbook of 

 Iridese," Mr. Baker, while making I. Bornmiilleri a synonym of Dan- 

 fordise, describes the coats as " membranous." Not only, however, does 

 Haussknecht insist on the reticulate coats of his /. BorwmuUeri, but 

 bulbs gathered by Bornmiiller, which Mr. Max Leichtlin kindly sent 

 .me, so closely resembled bulbs of reticulata, that of the same lot of 

 bulbs labelled by so careful a man as Max Leichtlin as "Born- 

 miilleri," while most proved to be so by the flower and mode of 

 growth, one or two were real reticulatas (I forget the exact variety). 

 Stronger proof of the distinctly reticulated coats of I. Bornmiilleri could 

 hardly be wanted. On the other hand, I possess, through t the great 

 kindness of Mrs. Danford, a dried specimen of the flower of the Iris 

 which she gathered at Amascha ; and I have no doubt as to its identity 

 with the flower of Bornmiiller's Iris gathered in Amasia or in Egin 

 (according to Max Leichtlin the Amasia plants differ somewhat from 

 the Egin plants). It is most extremely unlikely that there should be 

 two Irises with the flowers indistinguishable, but one having mem- 

 branous coats and the other netted coats to the bulb. I am driven to 

 suppose that I. Danfordise from Amascha and I. Bornmiilleri from 

 Amasia are really the same plant, and that Mrs. Danford's bulbs had 

 lost their outer netted coats before they came into Mr. Baker's hands ; 

 the inner coats of all the reticulata group are much less distinctly 



