924 



PE ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GABDEN PLANTS 



IRIS 



standards pure white with a yellow keel 

 and margin. There is an almost pure 

 white variety, alba, and a blue one called 

 ccerulea. 



Culture dc. as above for ' Beardless 

 Irises,' p. 917. Ordinary garden soil. In- 

 creased by division of the rhizomes. 



I. Helenae. — A lovely Caucasian Iris, 

 with large flowers having bright lilac 

 standards, and purple falls veined with 

 black, and having a velvety black blotch 

 at the base. This may be a form of 

 I. iherica. 



Culture £c. as above for ' Oncocyclus 

 Irises,' p. 918. 



I. hexagona A native of the South 



United States with deeply forked leafy 

 stems, 3-4 ft. high, and sword-shaped 

 leaves 2-3 ft. long and over an inch wide. 

 Flowers in April and May, 3-4 in. deep, 

 pale or deep lilac, with spoon-shaped 

 standards and obovate clawed falls. 

 Closely related to this species is the Japa- 

 nese I. albo-purpurea, which has white 

 flowers spotted with pm-ple. 



Culture do. as above for ' Bearded 

 Irises,' p. 917. Ordinary soil. Increased 

 by division. 



I. heylandiana. — A rare Oncocyclus 

 Iris, native of Mesopotamia. It is near 

 I. Sari, but the foliage is somewhat 

 narrower, and the flower stem more com- 

 pletely clothed with clasping leaves. 

 Both fall and standard are marked with 

 brown-violet or black-purple veins, on a 

 dingy white ground, the purple hue not 

 being so prominent as in /. Sari, and the 

 white ground coming more to the front. 

 The beard on the fall is white, more or 

 less tinged with yellow. 



Culture drc. as above for ' Oncocyclus 

 Irises,' p. 918. 



I. hookeriana. — A Bengalese Iris with 

 rather fleshy rhizomes and yellowish- 

 green leaves about a foot long and nearly 

 an inch broad appearing with the flowers. 

 The flower stems are shorter than the 

 leaves, and bear two flowers. Falls 

 obovate lance-shaped. If in. long, densely 

 bearded with white hairs tipped with 

 orange, and bluish-pmrple with darker 

 blotches. The narrow obovate standards 

 about } in. long are bluish-purple, while 

 the concave styles with triangular serrate 

 crests are reddish-purple. 



Culture dc. as above for ' Bearded 

 Irises,' p. 917. 



I. hybrida {I. amoena). — Under this 

 name come a large number of garden 

 Irises which have been derived probably 

 by hybridising and cross-breeding I. ger- 

 manica, I. variegata, I. squalens, and 

 other species. The sword-Hke leaves are 

 afoot or more long. The large flowers 

 appear in June, and usually have whitish, 

 pale lilac, and generally pale coloured 

 standards, and deeper coloured falls (lilac, 

 purple &c.) with a bright yeUow beard on 

 a white ground, and variously blotched 

 and striped. 



Culture dc. as above for 'Bearded 

 Irises,' p. 917. These hybrid or garden 

 Irises are among the showiest and most 

 easily grown plants. They are perfectly 

 hardy, with a vigorous constitution 

 capable of resisting wet or drought, and 

 produce large numbers of blossoms, com- 

 prising all shades of blue, lUac, violet, 

 yellow and brown, and passing from pure 

 white to the deepest purple. For the de- 

 coration of beds and borders, margins of 

 shrubberies, edges of lakes, ponds &c. they 

 are unequalled when in bloom. 



I. iberica. — A strikingly handsome 

 Oncocyclus Iris, native of the Caucasus, 

 with a compact rhizome and sickle-shaped 

 leaves 4-6 in. long. Flowers in May, 5-6 

 in. deep, with large broad incurved 

 standards, pale lilac in coloxn:, distinctly 

 lined and speckled with purple ; falls 

 roundish creamy- white with black-purple 

 blotches and a conspicuous deep velvety 

 blackish-purple blotch at the base. There 

 is a good deal of variation in the colour of 

 the flowers, but aU forms are very hand- 

 some. That known as ochracea has rich 

 orange falls tinged with brown, and 

 standards nearly pure white. Belli has 

 dark Ulao standards. Sir Michael Foster 

 mentions a charming variety in which the 

 standards are a pure dead white with only 

 a few hardly visible black-purple spots 

 around the base of the claw ; the fall is 

 marked with a thick irregular network of 

 chocolate-brown, while the ' signal ' or 

 patch at the base is deep crimson, the 

 style being almost black. The form 

 known as Van Honttei is a natural 

 hybrid between I. iberica and I. susiana 

 and has been reproduced artificially by Sir 

 M. Foster, who has also succeeded in 

 obtaining hybricte between I. iberica and 

 paradoxa, lupina, Meda, Chamceiris do. 

 I. iberica and its forms are grown to per- 

 fection by that veteran horticulturist, Mr. 

 Geo. F. "Wilson, of Weybridge. 



