A COMMON ASIATIC IRIS 59 



the other close to the axis, on pedicels of unequal length. 

 In Kashmir its relative grows 3 or 4 feet high, and bears 

 a tall stem with about three closely packed heads each 

 bearing several flowers. The colour also varies : it may 

 be yellow or a mixture of yellow and white, or it may be 

 some shade of lavender blue more or less veined with 

 white. 



A Central Asian form of this Iris has received the name 

 of Giildenstadtiana. It is a poor form, with flowers of 

 small size unredeemed by any good features. Like most 

 unwelcome intruders in our gardens, it is a most prolific 

 seed-bearer, and if ever, after much correspondence with 

 those in foreign parts, some wonderful Iris seeds arrive, 

 the chances are that, if and when they at length germinate 

 and finally flower, the grower will find himself in posses- 

 sion of one more form of this ubiquitous Iris or of the 

 equally ubiquitous 7. ensata. There is preserved in the 

 Kew Herbarium a letter from Dr. Lange, a Danish botanist, 

 who tried to form a collection of Irises soon after the middle 

 of last century, and who after laboriously getting together a 

 large number, complained that " the larger part of the Irises 

 that he had educated from seeds had received improper 

 names." /. Giildenstadtiana is one of the chief offenders 

 in company with /. Pseudacorus and /. versicolor, and here 

 is the explanation. All these seed freely, and the seeds ger- 

 minate as readily. The consequence is that seedlings come 

 up among rare or delicate species in the borders of botanical 

 gardens, and finally choke or oust the legitimate occupants. 

 The labels still remain, and the seeds are then carelessly col- 

 lected and distributed in the name of the more desirable 

 but departed species. 



