Chapter IV 



Classification 



<^"^lr'^HE CLASSIFICATION of Irises has 

 J been according to their rootstocks, and then 

 1 into sections, species and varieties. Of those 

 which have fleshy rootstocks, one section is Pogoniris, 

 Bearded Irises — "pogon" being Greek for "beard". 

 A few Irises of the same class, as to rootstocks, that 

 includes the section Pogoniris, are bearded but also 

 have such other distinctive characteristics that they 

 have not been included in the Pogoniris section but 

 have been placed in other sections (as, Oncocyclus, 

 Regelia). 



Only Irises usually included under the classificatory 

 name of "Pogoniris Section" will be herein considered, 

 and only such of the taller growing species of these 

 as have to a considerable extent come into commerce — 

 the bearded species usually included in the general 

 term "Dwarf Irises" being excluded. 



THE NAME "GERMAN" IRISES has been given 

 to a group of species of the bearded Irises, and it 

 came about in this way: 



Linnaeus (b. 1707, d. 1778), the great Swedish 

 naturalist, regarded as the father of modern system- 

 atic botany, in considering the subject of botanical 

 nomenclature settled upon the plan of giving each 

 known plant two names — a genus-name consisting of 

 a single word, and a species-name consisting of 



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