THE AMCENA GROUP 43 



is deeper in colour, and the falls are distinctly of a rich 

 mahogany shade. Maori King is even more richly coloured, 

 and the falls are edged with gold, while the finest of all 

 is perhaps King of Irises, a recent introduction from Ger- 

 many. In several instances the brown veins have entirely 

 disappeared from the falls, giving us such clear yellow 

 varieties as aurea (which must not be confused with the 

 beardless species from Kashmir) and Mrs. Neubronner. 



With the other sections of " German " Irises we are 

 on less certain grounds, when we attribute their origin 

 to any wild species, but it may be convenient here to keep 

 the conventional names for the groups. 



THE AMCENA GROUP 



This name has been given to those Irises of which the 

 standards are pure white while the falls are of some shade 

 of blue or violet. Of these one of the most striking is 

 Thorbeck, with deep velvety-violet falls, contrasting strongly 

 with the white standards. For this, the inferior variety 

 Victorine is often substituted, but it is not so pleasing, 

 for the white of the standards is marred by a few 

 irregular blotches of the same colour as the falls. Even 

 more handsome is an unnamed seedling of Black 

 Prince, a late-flowering Iris which will be mentioned 

 among the neglecta group. Here the standards are 

 white, and the falls of the deepest velvety-violet with a 

 conspicuous silvery border. The flowers closely resemble 

 in shape the somewhat spreading outline of Black Prince. 

 It may be of interest to record here that self-fertilised seed 



