182 



THE GARDENERS 1 CHRONICLE, 



[August IS, 1888. 



pinching them out with the finger and thumb. These 

 soft growths, when taken off below a joint, strike 

 readily in a frame, and when rooted may be planted 

 in large 60 or small 48-pots. Each plant will form a 

 tuberous root, and in October they may be dried off 

 without removing the plants from the pots, and if 

 they are stored where frost is excluded they can 

 generally be kept in good condition through the 

 winter. The pot- roots, as they are called, come in 

 useful when the ground-roots are ripened badly, and 

 rot off even when carefully kept. I put aside six good 

 roots of one particular variety last year, and every 

 .one decayed in the winter, and so I lost the stock, not 

 having any pot-roots of it. The plants have suffered 

 from too much water this year, and are not by any 

 .means so strong as if it had been a hot and dry 

 ■season. 



Hollyhocks. 



We have tried these handsome garden plants by 

 letting them remain in the open garden all through 

 the winter. On a dry border, and sheltered from the 

 north wind, not a single plant has died ; but in a 

 part of the garden where the water does not drain 

 away so freely, and where the plants are exposed to 

 tthe north, every plant has died. It is therefore not 

 safe to leave choice varieties out-of-doors, unless 

 they are placed in a sheltered and a moderately 

 dry position. It is, perhaps, rather troublesome to 

 keep such plants in pots through the winter ; but 

 those who object to this may plant them out close 

 together in frames in light dry sandy soil. They 

 •can be protected by the glass lights from the winter 

 •weather. The disadvantage attending the plants in 

 frames is the fact that they do not produce their 

 growths early enough to form cuttings which will 

 give strong flowering plants the same season; 

 whereas those placed near the roof-glass in a heated 

 house may have shoots strong enough to take off 

 for cuttings in January. Cuttings may be taken 

 aow wherever they can be obtained, and all the 

 side growths on which there are dormant eyes may 

 he taken off, and the eyes can be planted in small 

 pots, using light sandy soil. They soon form roots 

 in cold frames if the lights are kept close over them. 

 J. Douglas. 



Violas. 



From Messrs. Dobbie & Co., of Rothsay, we 

 have received a number of flowers of Violas, 

 which for correctness of form, variety, and 

 purity of colour, are of a high order of merit. 

 Crown Jewel may be mentioned as very lovely, 

 the rounded petals being all of a rich maroon 

 or purple-velvet colour, edged with a wavy margin 

 ■of white ; while the lowermost petal has an orange 

 .blotch, forming an excellent indicator for vagrant 

 insects, the button-like head of the style lying 

 ■exactly on the blotch. The strain may be highly 

 commended. 



IEI SE S. 



Iris cypbiana, J. G. Baker and M. Foster, n. sp* — 

 A tall large-flowered Iris of the Pogoniris group, 

 with a massive compressed branching many-flowered 

 scape, 3 feet or more in height. The spathe-valves 

 are conspicuously navicular while the flower is in 

 ibud, and become more or less scarious during 

 flowering. 



The blade of the obovate cuneate falls, which is 

 12 cm. long by 6} broad, is a fine somewhat 

 reddish-lilac, with thin inconspicuous darker veins ; 

 the claw is marked by thick greenish-brown branch- 

 ing veins on a creamy-white ground. These veins 

 ■spread over the base of the blade and end abruptly 

 .at a transverse line drawn through the end of the 

 beard, which is massive, reaching far beyond the 



* Iris (Pogoniris) ci/prmiia..— Khizoniate brevi, foliis elon- 

 gatis late ensiformibus glaucescentibus, spathce valvis navicu- 

 laribug ad anthe=in sursum scariosis, floribus generum max- 

 imis pulchre lilaciois basi albis veuis brunneis decoratis, 

 ovario subsessile irregulariter kcxagono, tubo subpollicari, seg- 

 ments exterioribus obovato-cuneato barba ccntrali pilis albidis 

 Juteo capitatis, segmentis interioribus orbiculari-oblongis uu- 

 guiculatis, styli cristis niagnis serrulatis, fructu ellipsoideo- 

 ■eylindricj. J. G. B. 



styles, the stout hairs being white, tipped with 

 orange, especially at the back. The under surface 

 of the claw is marked with purple spots. 



The blade of the oblong-unguiculate standard, 9 cm. 

 long by 6 cm. broad, is of a lighter more blueish lilac. 

 The long claw, 2 to 3 cm. in length, is marked with 

 reddish-brown spots arranged in broken lines. 



The styles are of a lilac or lavender colour, lighter 

 still than the standards, except along the median line. 

 The crests are broadly triangular, divergent, with ser- 

 rated edges. 



The relatively long tube is light green with faint 

 purple streaks in contination of the claws of the 

 standards. 



This Iris, by its inflorescence, belongs to the I. 

 pallida group, though the peduncles are relatively 

 longer, and has a certain superficial resemblance to I. 

 pallida itself, but appears to me to differ from it, to 

 the value of a species, in the following points : — 



1. In I. cypriana the spathe valves and peduncular 

 bracts are conspicuously navicular, and at flowering 

 time are scarious in part only, sometimes only half 

 scarious, the extent varying according to dryness of 

 season, and are brown scarious. 



In I. pallida the spathe valves are never navicular, 

 and are wholly scarious — paper-white scarious — long 

 before flowering, while the buds are still immature, 

 and that whatever the weather. This is a very 

 marked feature of I. pallida, and makes itself felt in 

 the hybrid offspring of I. pallida. In I. plicata, or 

 I. Sweetii, which are hybrids of I. pallida, the spathe 

 valves are as scarious — and as early scarious — as in 

 I. pallida itself. I am consequently led to lay great 

 stress on this character. 



2. The form of the perianth segment is different 

 in the two. In I. cypriana the fall is obovate- 

 cuneate, in I. pallida it is more or less broadly ovate, 

 in some cases very broad and short, in other cases 

 rather longer in proportion to breadth, but never so 

 relatively elongate as in I, cypriana. The standard 

 similarly in I. cypriana is oblong-unguiculate, with 

 a long claw ; in I. pallida orbicular-obovate, with a 

 short claw. 



3. In I. pallida the tube is very short, the ovary is 

 short and broad, very distinctly hexagonal with six 

 distinct grooves, becoming as a ripe capsule, a short, 

 broad ellipsoid. 



In I. cypriana both tube and ovary are relatively 

 longer, aud the ovary though really hexagonal with 

 six grooves, has three sides broader than the others, 

 so that it appears somewhat trigonal, and ripens into 

 a capsule which is an elongate ellipsoid. 



It is true that the ovary in the different varieties of 

 I. pallida varies a good deal in length relative to 

 breadth ; some are very short and broad, others are 

 relatively long, but in each case the end is rounded 

 obtusely and abruptly. In I. cypriana the ends thin 

 away more gradually from the middle. I do not 

 know what exact term to use — it is not unlike a 

 torpedo with blunt ends. 



4. The styles in I. cypriana are, relative to breadth, 

 longer than in I. pallida, which are notably short 

 and broad. The crests in I. cypriana are larger and 

 more quadrate. 



5. The leaves are relatively narrower in I. 

 cypriana. 



6. The habit is very different. I. cypriana dies 

 down to a large extent in late summer, and con- 

 spicuous shoots, as in I. sicula, very closely re- 

 sembling similar shoots occurring at the same time 

 in I. susiana, appear after the autumn rains. I. 

 pallida does not die down until winter, and then 

 sometimes partially, but sometimes wholly, no leaves 

 remaining above the soil. It will be interesting to 

 observe the characters of the seeds, which I hope to 

 do in the course of the summer. 



1 do not think I. cyprina can be a hybrid of I. 

 pallida — the only possible other parent would be I. 

 gennanica — and then one would expect a very dif- 

 ferent coloration. 



The root of this fine large new bearded Iris was 

 sent to Kew from Cyprus by Mrs. Kenyon, together 

 with roots of a white Iris, which proved to be iden- 

 tical with I. albicans (Lange). The handsome large 



flowers make it a welcome addition to our gardens 

 and it has the additional merit of being a late 

 flowerer— the latest of the tall bearded Irises— later 

 than I. pallida, and at this moment (July 17) is in 

 flower in my garden at the same time as I. Monnieri 

 and I. aurea. It is a very conspicuous aud pleasing 

 sight at a distance. I can distinctly see the large 

 white beard 30 or more yards off. It has a slight 

 fragrance resembling that of I. germanica rather 

 than that of I. pallida. 



It seems somewhat impatient of autumnal and 

 winter rains, and should, I think, as indicated by the 

 manner in which it shoots in autumn, be planted in 

 a dry position. I fancy that it would profit by 

 being " roasted " in summer, and the extremely free 

 way in which it has flowered this summer is pro- 

 bably due to the, in some ways, beneficent drought 

 of last summer. M. F. 



I. Babnumi, J. G. Baker and M. Foster, n. sj>.[ 



Bhhome, slender, fleshy, with the usual characters 

 of an Oncocyclus rhizome, i.e., the new buds, which 

 appear first in a nipple form, early become separated 

 by a constriction from the old stock, causing the new 

 growths to be discrete, not massed together as in 

 Pogoniris. 



Leaves, five or six to a tuft, about 15 cm. by 1 cm. 

 or less linear, pointed, somewhat falcate. 



Scape, 3 cm. to 1-1 cm. in length, one flowered, 

 with a sheathing leaf starting at about a quarter 

 of the length 



Spathe Values, 5 to 6 cm. long, elongate, narrow- 

 pointed, slightly ventricose, longer than tube, flushed 

 with purple at lip and extreme edge, otherwise green, 

 persistently herbaceous long after flowering. 



Fall, obovate cuneate, 5 cm. long, by half as broad, 

 with no distinction between claw and blade, the 

 latter concave from side to side, sharply reflexed and 

 curled down in the apical third, dark venous red-purple 

 with darker veins ; beard triangular, "fluffy," hairs 

 thin, close-set, yellow, tipped purple, many hairs 

 straggling away laterally from the triangular outline 

 of the mass of the beard. 



Standard: blade, orbicular obovate, connivent, 6 to 

 8 cm. long by 6 or 7 cm. broad, folded saddlewise, 

 narrowing, at first gradually and at last suddenly, to 

 a short claw, edge crenate, colour red-purple rather 

 lighter than the falls, with more conspicuous veins ; 

 a very few hairs on the claw. 



Styles nearly horizontal, arching over falls ; 

 groundwork brownish-yellow, made reddish by red- 

 purple dots and a median-purple streak; under- 

 surface yellow; crests triangular, much recurved, 

 finely serrate, red-purple with deeper veins ; stigma 

 with serrate purple edge. 



Anthers large ; pollen yellow. 



Ovary trigonal, shorter than the long tube. 



Capsule trigono-ellipsoid. Seeds large, with con- 

 spicuous light-coloured strophiole. 



Flowers in May or June, rather later than I. 

 iberica. 



The flowers in a warm atmosphere possess a de- 

 lightful fragrance. The plant, like other Oncocyclus 

 Irises, dies down in midsummer if roasted, and shoots 

 again after the autumn rains. In many respects it 

 comes near I. paradoxa. 



There can be no doubt that in spite of possessing 

 a defined beard, it belongs to the Oncocyclus group ; 

 in every other character, as well as in general aspect 

 and habit, it is an Oncocyclus. 



This plant is a native of the hills, about two hours 

 distant from Van in Armenia. For the possession 

 of it I am indebted to the kind zeal of Mrs. Barnum, 

 of the American Mission of Kharput. She saw the 

 flower while on a visit to Van, and secured roots for 

 me. I have great pleasure in naming it after this 

 lady, who has been indefatigable in sendingme Irises 



t Iris Barnumi, n. sp, — Rhizomate brevi ; foliis linearibus 

 glaucescentibus semi-pedalibus ; caule brevi nionocephalo ; 

 spathce valvis maguis post _antkesin Uerbaceis ; periantliii 

 tubo brevi, limbo atropurpureo venis obscuris, segmentis 

 exterioribus obovoato-cuneatis barba subdiffusa pilis lutescen- 

 tibus purpureo-capitatis, segmentis iuterioribus obovato- 

 unguiculatis exterioribus majoribus ; styli crislis brevibus 

 recurvatis ; seminibus niagnis conspieue strophiolatis. /. G. B. 



