SOME GARDEN IRISES. 



231 



that would attach to a hybrid between a bulbous and a non-bulbous 

 species ? Unless outward appearances are very deceptive, I am 

 incHned to think that the point of contact, and consequently the 

 greatest hope of success, lies in the neighbourhood of /. Xiphium and 

 /. spuria. The flowers of these two species are curiously similar 

 in shape, and we must also remember that the former sometimes, 

 though rarely, produces one or two vertical lateral branches in the 

 axils of the leaves precisely similar to those that we find in /. spuria. 

 They are also still to be found growing wild in the same region, for they 

 both occur in Spain and in North-west Africa. Moreover, /. Xiphium 

 has been recently rediscovered on the French coast between Marseilles 

 and the Spanish frontier, where /. spuria is also not unknown. 



If repeated attempts are made to cross these two species, sooner 

 or later one may succeed, and the interest will then be to see what 

 kind of rootstock the plant will form. The resultant plant might 

 perhaps throw some light on the question whether the bulb arose from 

 the rhizome or the rhizome from the bulb, or whether both have been 

 evolved from a common ancestor. 



We must now pass on to the third name on our hst, namely /. 

 sibirica orientalis, which may perhaps have been intentionally com- 

 pounded to describe a hybrid between two species, for I. sibirica and 

 /. orientalis are totally distinct. The former is, I beheve, confined 

 to Europe east of the Urals, between which and Lake Baikal there 

 occurs a gap before /. orientalis begins in North-eastern Asia. I must 

 admit in passing that there is apparently in Corea a puzzHng plant 

 which seems in some dried specimens to be merely /. orientalis, but 

 which in other cases comes very near to being a dwarf, large-flowered 

 sibirica. I live in hopes of eventually obtaining seed of wild plants 

 of this Corean Iris, for I have always had some doubt about the 

 authenticity of reputed specimens from Corea which I have grown from 

 time to time. 



/. sibirica and /. orientalis are totally distinct in habit, and, what 

 is even more important, have entirely dissimilar seeds and seed- 

 vessels. Both have hollow stems, and narrow, almost grassy, foliage. 

 Here, however, the likeness ends, for the spathes of sibirica are entirely 

 scarious, while those of orientalis are wholly herbaceous. The capsule 

 of sibirica is broad, rounded and inflated, and the seeds large and 

 flattened, while in the case of /. orientalis the capsule is much narrower 

 relatively to its length and the seeds are much smaller, with a tendency 

 to be cubical. 



Of both species albinos are common, and the well-known and 

 beautiful ' Snow Queen ' is a typical albino form of /. orientalis. It 

 breeds true to the white colour, which acts as a Mendelian recessive. 



The rehabilitation of Thunberg's /. orientalis as a good species is 

 fortunately rendered possible by the evident confusion that underlies 

 Miller's Iris of that name. The latter is said to be bearded, 

 and yet the figure is that of some member of the spuria group. In 

 view of this confusion in the original description we are able to keep 



