Classification 107 



Can bulrushes but by the river grow? 



Can flags there flourish where no waters flow? 



Job VIII: II, versified by G. Sandys. 



Spawn, weeds and filth, a leprous scum, 



Made the running rivulet thick and dumb, 



And at its outlet flags huge as stakes 



Dammed it up with roots knotted like water-snakes. 



Shelley: The Sensitive Plant. 



TALL BEARDED IRISES. As the beard of Iris 

 germanica is the principal characteristic that causes this 

 species to be regarded as the type of tall species 

 similarly bearded, "Tall Bearded Irises" seems to 

 be an appropriate substitute for " German Irises " ? 

 especially as it conforms to Linnaeus' plan of naming 

 plants (adopting a name expressing an obvious char- 

 acteristic). 



Linnaeus' description of Iris germanica is not full 

 enough to enable one to take any particular form of 

 Iris germanica as the type, and it does not appear 

 that he left any herbarium-specimen of it. In the 

 Linnean herbarium, which is now in the possession of 

 the Linnean Society of London, there is only one 

 sheet of Iris germanica, and the only memorandum 

 on the sheet is, "germanica, H. U. 1777",* which 

 means that the specimen was derived from the garden 

 of Upsala in the year 1777. The writing is that of 

 Linnaeus' son (himself a botanist),* and during all of 



*Information received through courtesy of Mr. J. Drayton Jackson, General 

 Secretary of the Linnean Society of London. 



