65 



fiddle- shaped, having an orbicular blade, separated by marked con- 

 striction from the long claw, which either spreads horizontally or 

 forms, with its fellows, a funnel. Standards narrow, erect. Crests 

 of style large, quadrate. Capsule long, narrow ; seed numerous, 

 small, cubical or angular. Colour either a variable hue of purple 

 (with a narrow orange signal on the blade of the fall) or pure yellow, 

 or yellow blotched with purple. 



Time. June. 



Hab. South of France, Spain, Portugal, Algiers, Corsica (?), 

 Sardinia, Riviera. 



I. XIPHIUM var. LUSITANICA. (After Lusitania, 

 Portugal. ) 



Syn. I. lusitanica (Gawler), Ker, Bot. Mag. t. 679. 



Char act. A form in which the flowers are pure yellow, with an 

 orange signal on the fall, and the perianth more or less distinctly 

 funnel-shaped ; the claw of the fall is generally broad, overlapping the 

 style at the sides, and covering in the base of the standard ; the ovary 

 is less exserted than in the type, and the spathe-valves have some 

 tendency to be inflated. The Xiphion sordidum of Salisbury (Trans. 

 Hort. Soc. i. 303) resembles this, save that the flowers are not wholly 

 yellow, but blotched with purple. 



NOTE. The garden form, known as " The Thunderbolt," is a robust 

 form, with a tall stem, two feet or more in height, and large flowers of 

 a peculiar bronzy or smoky hue, due to an admixture of purple and 

 yellow with brown. Besides its robustness and peculiar colour, one of 

 its most marked features is the breadth of the yellow " signal " on the 

 blade of the fall. This (which, however, is seen, though to a less 

 extent, in some other garden forms) and the fact that it rarely, if ever, 

 in my experience, goes to seed, are perhaps the only indications that 

 it is a hybrid ; if it is, the breadth of the signal would indicate 

 J. filifolia as one of the parents ; and further, if so, I. xiphium var. 

 lusitanica is probably the seed-bearer, since it is very different from 

 seedlings which I have raised from I. Jilifolia as seed-bearer crossed 

 with I. xiphium. Though "The Thunderbolt" shows some of the 

 characters of the hisitanica variety, it is wholly different from the plant 

 described by Salisbury (loc. cit.) as Xiphion sordidum. It may be the 

 I. spectabuis of Spach (Hist. Phan. xiii. p. 20), which that author 

 suggests to be a hybrid of J. xiphium and xiphioides ; but, if so, Spach's 

 suggestion is invalid. 



I. XIPHIUM var. BATTANDIERI. (After M. Battan 

 dier, of Algiers.) 



Syn. I. xiphium (Ba,Hamdier, Bull. Soc. Bot. de France, 1884, p. 366). 



Char act. Bulb, foliage, and general habit same as in type, save 

 that leaves are very glaucous. Perianth very turbinate. Claw of fall 

 not elliptical and separated by marked constriction from rounded 



