6 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



state, either be a simple bulb something like that of a 

 small Narcissus but without the neck of the latter, or it may 

 possess several thick, tapering, fleshy roots, attached to the 

 base of the bulb, which send out branching rootlets when 

 growth begins again in autumn. 



To the former class belong the Xiphium, or Spanish 

 Iris group and the reticulata section. To the latter class 

 belong the Juno Irises, most of which are of comparatively 

 recent introduction from Central Asia, although one 

 member at least of the subdivision, /. persica, has been in 

 cultivation in England at any rate since the middle of the 

 sixteenth century. 



So far the task of division has been easy, but when we 

 come to the other main division, namely, the species with 

 rhizomatous rootstocks, our difficulties immediately become 

 greater. The various divisions with which we have here to 

 deal are less clearly and easily defined. They consist, in 

 the first place, of the Pogoniris group or Bearded Irises, the 

 name being derived from the Greek Troyyav, a beard, and 

 the Apogon species, which, as the name implies, should be 

 beardless. Unfortunately, some of the species, which in 

 other respects seem to belong to the latter group, have on 

 the blade of the fall a pubescence, which under the 

 microscope becomes distinctly a beard. However, both 

 these classes are easily distinguished from the Evansias, a 

 small group in which the beard is replaced by a crest. The 

 name Pseudevansia has been invented for a group of Irises 

 in which the beard was supposed to spring from a kind of 

 low ridge, running down the centre of the fall, though it is 

 doubtful whether there are really any Irises belonging to 

 such a class. 



