8 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



bulbous plants such as Moraeas, which used, indeed, 

 formerly to be classed with Irises. But what is the differ- 

 ence between an Iris and a Moraea ? The standard book 

 on the Irideae affords us no further light on this question 

 than that Irises grow north of the Equator and Moraeas 

 south of it ! This may be true, but it is hardly scientific, 

 although it would certainly add to the interest with which 

 the botanical world would await the first flowering of any 

 bulbous plants that might be brought from the temperate 

 regions on the Kenia and Kilimanjaro Ranges, which lie 

 almost directly under the Equator in Central Africa. As 

 a matter of fact Irises are only separated from Moraeas 

 by the existence of a tube, however short, between the 

 ovary and the base of the segments of the perianth. In 

 a Moraea, the divisions of the flower rise directly from 

 the top of the ovary without the intervention of any tube. 

 The six segments of the flowers of an Iris are popularly 

 known as the "standards" and the "falls." The terms 

 are convenient, but nevertheless inappropriate when applied 

 to such groups as that of the Juno Irises, where the standards 

 are either horizontal or drooping, while the falls stand up 

 at an angle of at least 45. In addition to these six 

 segments, there are the three style branches, which arch 

 over the anthers and bear on their under side near the 

 extremity the stigmatic surface, through which the flower 

 is fertilised. The style branches form the roof and the 

 haft of the falls the floor of a kind of tunnel. The 

 stigma projects downwards at the mouth of this tunnel, 

 along the roof of which lie the anthers. These bear the 

 pollen, and at their base exudes the nectar which entices 

 the insects. 



