THE CLASSIFICATION OF GARDEN IRISES. 
3 
undoubtedly give rise, and that they did not represent what are 
usually accepted as species. It seemed, therefore, that no useful 
purpose would be served by retaining these names. 
It may, however, be not without interest to indicate some of the 
species from which our garden Irises have arisen, and to point out 
some of the characteristics which they have derived from them. 
In order to do this, it is, however, necessary to look somewhat closely 
into the structure of an Iris flower, and so to gain some appreciation 
of the value of the various parts of the inflorescence for purposes 
of classification, always remembering that for this purpose colour 
alone is entirely unreliable and should be neglected. 
When the bud first appears it is seen to be enclosed in two more or 
less boat-shaped valves or spathes, which may remain wholly green 
(herbaceous) even when the flowers have expanded, or become entirely 
papery (s carious) long before the flowers open, or vary to any degree 
between these two extremes. Inside the spathes, the ovary or imma- 
ture seed vessel is supported on a stalk or pedicel, though this may vary 
considerably in length. Above the ovary there is a perianth tube, 
which at its upper end gives rise to the six segments forming the 
main part of the flower. Of these the inner three stand erect and 
are called the standards, while the other three droop and are called 
falls. The perianth tube surrounds the base of the style, which 
connects the ovary with the three style branches. On the under 
side of each style- branch there is a projecting lip or stigma to which 
the pollen has to be conveyed in order to fertilize the flower. The 
style-branches also arch over and protect the anthers, which will be 
found lying close beneath them. The position of the anthers in the 
Bearded Irises is such that self-pollination is practically impossible. 
It can only be effected naturally by the agency of a bee, which, in 
its search for nectar at the base of the stamen, brushes the pollen 
off the anther on to its hairy back, from which it is scraped by the 
stigma of the next style-tunnel that the insect enters, either on the 
same • flower or on another. To pollinate an Iris artificially it is 
necessary to extract an anther from a flower by means of forceps, 
and then draw it across the stigmatic lip in such a way that the 
pollen grains are deposited on it. 
Among Bearded Irises there are few exceptions to the rule that 
the varieties increase in height as the season advances. Among the 
earliest to flower are the various forms of 7. pumila and I. chamaeiris, 
and of their Balkan counterparts 7. mellita and 7. Reichenbachii. 
I. pumila is stemless, but has a long perianth tube ; while 7. chamaeiris 
always shows a stem of some inches in length, but has a comparatively 
short tube. Precisely the same difference exists between the two 
Balkan species, which, however, both differ from the Western pair 
in the possession of a sharp ridge or keel running along the back of 
the spathe valves. 7. pumila is comparatively rare in cultivation, 
and even the well-known pumila coerulea is almost certainly a 
hybrid of garden origin. Forms of 7. chamaeiris are much more 
