71 



brown, with conspicuous veins. First (vaginal) leaf often red, some- 

 times spotted. Stem, which bears two flowers, each five or six inches 

 across, about two feet high, completely hidden by the deeply channelled 

 leaves, which are broad, like those of I. xiphioides, but very glaucous 

 and striated on the outside. Spathe-valves long, reaching up to 

 flower, somewhat swollen, keeled, pointed, green at flowering ; a 

 distinct perianth tube, an inch or more long. Fall, with long claw 

 spreading nearly horizontally, separated by slight constriction from 

 the sharply deflexed, elliptical blade, which has a wavy edge, and is 

 notched at the apex. Standard erect, linear-lanceolate, with wavy 

 edge. Style cuneate, with large, rhomboidal, plaited, and veined 

 crests. Anthers long and large, with orange pollen. Colour of fall 

 light or deep blue, or bluish purple, with deeper veins ; the claw 

 bears a very low median yellow ridge, which on the hind part of the 

 blade spreads out into a broad yellow signal. Standards and styles 

 usually deeper in colour than fall, sometimes markedly so. 



Time. March or April. 



Hab. Tangiers. 



13. I. FONTANESII. Grenier et Godron, Fl. de France, iii. 

 245. (After Desfontaines, French botanist.) 



Charact. This name was given by Grenier and Godron to the 

 Algerian Iris described by Desfontaines as J. xiphium. They describe 

 it as being much larger than J. xiphium, and with a more oval blade to 

 the fall. They do not mention nor, indeed, does Desfontaines the 

 existence of an obvious perianth tube above the ovary, which is a 

 conspicuous feature of the specimens labelled Iris Fontanesii in the 

 Kew Herbarium, and which led Mr. Baker (Journ. ofBot. 1871, p. 13) 

 to regard it as identical with I. tingitana. Grenier and Godron, more- 

 over, say thafc I. Fontanesii occurs also in Spain ; and we may, perhaps, 

 infer that these authors really referred to a large form of I. xiphium, 

 as does also, possibly, Battandier (Bull. Soc. Bot. de Fr. 1886) when 

 he says that I. Fontanesii is very common in Algiers ; in fact, Bat- 

 tandier regards what I have just described as xiphium var. Battandieri 

 as the only true I. xiphium growing in Algiers ! Whether the 

 specimens from Algiers, having a distinct tube above the ovary, are 

 merely varieties of I. tingitana, or whether they represent a distinct 

 species, I should not like to say until I have studied living specimens. 

 I may remark that the existence of a perianth tube above the ovary 

 seems a valid specific character. Though seedlings of J. xiphium and 

 J. xiphioides have been raised generation after generation, none of 

 them, as far as I have hitherto seen, possess such a tube. 



Hab. Algiers. 



14. I. JTJNCE A. Desfontaines, Fl. Atlant. i. 39, t. 4. (From 

 juncus, rush-like leaves.) 



