STRUCTURE OF IRIS FLOWER 7 



Another division bears the mysterious name of Oncocy- 

 clus, whose author does indeed give the two Greek words 

 of which the name is composed, but omits to give the inter- 

 pretation thereof. As one of these means a circle and the 

 other anything from a mass or the space that contains it to 

 dignity, majesty, or even a topknot, we are left in the dark 

 as to the meaning that he attached to the word. It may 

 have some reference to the curious shape of the seeds, which 

 is characteristic of this and another closely allied group, 

 named Regelia after Dr. Regel, of St. Petersburg, by whose 

 exertions so many Central Asian species were introduced 

 into cultivation. 



Outside these main subdivisions, there are various mis- 

 cellaneous species that do not seem to fit into any of them. 

 Two species, for instance /. nepalensis and I. Collettii, 

 have neither a bulb nor a rhizome for their rootstock, 

 but a mere growing point to which a bundle of fleshy 

 roots is attached, closely resembling those of the Hemero- 

 callis. 



CHAPTER II 

 THE STRUCTURE OF THE IRIS FLOWER 



To define an Iris is not altogether as easy as it might 

 seem at first sight. To say that it is a monocotyledonous 

 plant, whose perianth is divided into two regular whorls, 

 each of three segments, is prosaic, mystifying to the non- 

 botanical mind, and unsatisfying even to the botanist. 

 For this definition includes, besides Irises proper, other 



