OTHER JUNO SPECIES 21 



is scarcely so pleasing, for the combination of reddish- 

 purple and grey does not produce a brilliant colour. 



Before sindjarensis and its hybrids are over, the 

 brilliant 7. Rosenbachiana from Turkestan should be in 

 flower. It is unfortunately rarely seen, and as its price 

 is rising, it is presumably difficult to keep even in Holland. 

 Early in March there appear through the bare ground 

 broad, pale nipple-shaped shoots which soon show the 

 tips of the green leaves ; then in a day or two, if the 

 weather is at all warm or sunny, up shoots the flower on 

 a long 4-inch perianth tube. It is usually some com- 

 bination of white, crimson, and gold, but this is a very 

 variable Iris, and some more recently discovered forms 

 have a very wide range of colours. Each bulb may 

 produce as many as three flowers in succession. 



Shortly after this, the white form of 7. orchioides usually 

 opens, closely followed by ccerulea and sulphurea. Why 

 the colour varieties should usually bloom in advance of the 

 golden-yellow type it is difficult to see, but this has been 

 the experience of some years' cultivation. Each of these, 

 when well grown, produces five or six flowers, which open 

 in succession down the foot-high stem. Simultaneously 

 we may expect to see the brilliantly coloured 7. Warleyensis 

 of deep purple with a yellow central patch, blue crest, and 

 pale edges to the falls, and the more delicately coloured 

 7. Willmottiana, with its deep lavender flowers, conspicu- 

 ously blotched with white and broad, glistening leaves of 

 deep green. 



Lastly, and perhaps most beautiful of all, comes 7. 

 bucharica from Bokhara, with creamy-white flowers with 

 clear golden-yellow tips to the broad falls. This grows 



