74 



OV 



so well developed as in J. reticulata. Flower about two inches across, 

 funnel-shaped, single, on a stem a foot long. Spathe-valves (some- 

 times one only is present, sometimes the inner one is entirely hidden 

 within the outer one) long, pointed, swollen, persistent after flowering. 

 Flower with long peduncle and short (|-inch to -inch) tube. Fall 

 with an ovate blade, half as long as and generally narrower than the 

 oblong-cuneate claw. Standard minute, narrow, elliptical or lanceo- 

 lated, folded up sideways, with the apex prolonged into a cusp or 

 awn. Crests of style long, pointed, triangular. The styles are often 

 united at some distance above the tube. The partitions of the ovary 



do not meet in the middle 

 line, hence the chamber of 

 the ovary is single. Cap- 

 sule obovate, swollen. The 

 blade of the fall is a deep 

 velvety black, the rest of 

 the flower a yellowish 

 green, with usually a bright 

 green median streak on the 

 claw and beginning of the 

 blade of the fall. The pe- 

 rianth segments are united 

 at their bases, above the 

 perianth tube, into a con- 

 spicuous cup. 



Specimens from different 

 localities vary a good deal 

 in the length of leaves, as 

 to the presence of a second 

 spathe-valve, as to the 

 exact form of the fall and 

 of the standard, and to some extent in colouring ; some specimen 

 have a reddish tinge on the claw of the fall. 

 Time. March or April. 



Hab. South of France, Corsica, Riviera, Sicily, Italy^ Algiers 

 and North Africa, Dalmafcia, Istria, Greece, Ionian and other Grecian 

 Islands. 



Sweet (Brit. FL Gard. 2nd ser. t. 146) makes three distinct 

 species : H. lotigifolius, the form with very long leaves figured by him, 

 coming from Naples ; H. repens, with short leaves and a single 

 spathe-valve, figured in Redoute, and Sibthorp and Smith ; H. U- 

 spathaceus, the form with the two spathe-valves, figured in Bot, Mag. 



17. I. PEBSICA. Linn. Syst. p. 79. (From Persia, habitat.) 

 Syn. Xiphium persicum (Miller, Diet. 6th ed.). Iris bulbosa 

 persica (Parkinson, Parad. p. 172). 



FIG. 49. IKIS TUBEEOSA. 



