VARIOUS HYBRIDS 29 



among these hybrids, but the warm, golden-brown colour 

 of Charon, the size and shapeliness of Persephone, and 

 the evident traces of Leichtlinii in Hera are all worthy of 

 mention. 



Foster also managed to combine iberica and paradoxa 

 with various bearded Irises, such as pallida, variegata, and 

 possibly sambucina. The habit of these hybrids is inter- 

 mediate between the two parents ; they are stronger than 

 the Oncocyclus, but hardly so vigorous as their other 

 parents. In some the influence of paradoxa is most 

 marked. The falls become narrow and have a broad, 

 thick beard of blackish hairs. In iberica x pallida, of 

 which there were no fewer than fourteen varieties, the 

 flowers call to mind those of both the parents. The colour 

 is rather that of pallida, in which species the orange beard 

 is, however, overcast with the dingy brown of iberica. 



Since Foster's death several of these hybrids have fallen 

 into the hands of dealers, and some have been rechristened. 

 At Shelford the best of them had Persian names, obtained 

 from some professor of Oriental languages, who had also 

 supplied the interpretation thereof. Unfortunately this 

 was lost, but names such as Dilkush remain. These 

 plants are undoubtedly very interesting, but scarcely worth 

 the inflated prices that are now asked for them. 



Another interesting result of the same kind was obtained 

 by the present author by combining the colour and habit of 

 a claret olbiensis a dwarf bearded Iris from the south- 

 eastern corner of France with the conspicuous veining 

 of Korolkowii. Here, too, the yellow and the blackish 

 beards combined to form a dingy brown, and apparently 

 followed no law of Mendelian dominance. Nearly every 



