226 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SOME GARDEN IRISES. 

 By W. R. Dykes, M.A. 



[Read June 3, 1914; Professor F. Keeble, M.A., F.R.S., in the Chair.] 



It would obviously be impossible in the short time at our disposal 

 this afternoon to give anything approaching an adequate account 

 of all the Irises that our gardens now contain. I propose, therefore, 

 to deal primarily with certain groups of Irises among which confusion 

 seems to prevail, and, as we pass from one group to another, to bring to 

 your notice some of those Irises which are still rare in cultivation, 

 either by reason of their recent introduction or from what appears 

 to me to be unaccountable neglect. It may be that I have a quite 

 unreasonable prejudice in their favour. I probably have. 



The first Irises, then, to which I propose to draw your attention 

 are the three which appeared in this Society's list of plants for dis- 

 tribution at the beginning of this year. They serve to illustrate the 

 fact that gardeners have — and indeed must have — tenacious memories 

 for names, though the mental processes by which the names have 

 become attached to the plants will not always bear logical analysis. 



The first of the three names on the list is that of Iris germanica. 

 It may be a paradox, but the only two facts on which I feel justified 

 in insisting with regard to this Iris are, firstly that it is not a native 

 of Germany, and secondly that of the vast series of plants which we 

 find under this heading in catalogues and garden lists only a very 

 small proportion have anything whatever to do with Linnaeus' 

 species, I. germanica. 



Of all the twenty or thirty Irises known to Linnaeus this is perhaps 

 the most difficult to identify. If we had only his short Latin diagnosis, 

 we should be utterly unable to decide to which of a number of plants 

 he gave the name. Fortunately he quotes his authorities, and by 

 inquiring into the sources of his information, as well as by the process 

 of ehminating those species of which his descriptions are more definite 

 and adequate, it is possible to arrive at a definition of /. germanica. 

 This can be checked by comparison with the dried specimen which 

 is still preserved in his herbarium at the Linnean Society here in 

 London. Of colour there is of course no longer any trace, and, since 

 such words as purple, lavender, lilac, and violet convey such very 

 different impressions to different individuals, we cannot be certain 

 which of several colour-forms Linnaeus had in mind. 



We may, however, define /. germanica as a rhizomatous, bearded 

 species, with a branching stem, which in its typical form seems to 

 produce four flowers, though a fifth may often develop immediately 



