472 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



orient alis, sanguinea, and 1 Oriel.' This is a very desirable and beautiful 

 plant, with rich crimson spathe-valves, and deep purple flowers. 



A word might here be said as to the confusion which exists through 

 the synonyms of the older botanists and writers being still retained 

 in some quarters, thereby figuring as independent species things one very 

 possibly possesses already. And again, if I may be allowed to dogmatise, 

 I think it is time a consensus of opinion was arrived at and settled as 

 to a convenient name for the group of many differing species which con- 

 stitute the early- flowering section of the Bearded Irises. At present they 

 are called 1 Pumila,' and new additions dubbed pumila nova : a cross, that 



Fig. 151. — Intermediate Iris. [Qapa/me.) 



is to say, between Iris Statellce and I. biflora gains the specific name of 

 a totally different plant, to which it is not in the least related. To mend 

 this state of affairs, and to fix the kind of plant, its requirements and 

 its habitat (or the habitat of its near relatives when not a species), I 

 have ventured to call them "Alpine Irises," from the habitat of many 

 of the species ; and the hybrids between such species or their progeny, 

 "New Alpine Hybrids " (figs. 147, 148, 149, 150). 



To return : that Beardless Irises have shown excellent results in the 

 hands of the hybridists, the varieties raised by Sir Michael Foster be- 

 tween ochrolcuca, aurca, and spuria fully demonstrate, and I trust that 



