22 A REMINDER TO PLANT TO HELP 



Albicans (whitish) Standards and falls pure paper white; 



early and free blooming. 

 Flavescens (yellowish) Standards and falls delicate shades of 



soft yellow; early and free blooming;. 

 Florentina (of Florence) Standards and falls white faintly tinged 



with lavender; free and very early (May) flowering. 

 Trojana (Syn. Cypriana and Asiatica) Flowers of large size, of 



shades of blue, on very tall stems; late blooming. 



Of the foregoing species, germanica and florentina are natives 

 of southern Europe along the shores of the Mediterranean. Al- 

 bicans is believed to be an Arabian plant. It was found growing 

 in Spain, but it probably had been brought there by the Moors 

 who conquered the country in the eighth century. Trojana 

 was found growing in Cyprus whence one of its names, Cypri- 

 ana but was probably from the neighborhood of Troy in Asia 

 Minor whence its names Trojana and Asiatica. All the others 

 are supposed to have originated in central Europe Austria, 

 Hungary or the Balkan States. 



Crosses between the tall and the early blooming (April) dwarf 

 bearded Irises, having a strain of blood from the germanica 

 section, have resulted in a new type commonly classed as: 



Interregna or Intermediate (Blooming between the early dwarf 

 and the later tall species) Flowers large, some unusually so, 

 of various colors; free and early (May) flowering. 



A knowledge of the species to which any particular variety 

 belongs, and of the locality in which such species is supposed to 

 have had its origin, is often helpful to a person contemplating 

 purchase. Different plant smen sometimes give the same name to 

 different varieties, and each of them is entirely within his rights 

 in so doing, but a purchaser may easily be misled thereby if he 

 does not know the species to which each of such va/ieties belongs, 

 as frequently only the color of the flower is described, and that 

 only in a general way. Black Prince, for instance, is described 

 in one catalog as "standards purple lilac, falls rich velvety 

 black," and in another as "standards intensely deep violet blue, 

 falls velvety purple black." The ordinary reader, without fur- 

 ther information on the subject, would naturally understand 

 both plantsmen as referring to the same variety, whereas they 



