78 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
hottest, barest, driest, stoniest slopes of the torrid downs about 
the Blackwater, where it forms neat and very dense, intricate, 
woody bushlets of 6-8 inches high and twice as much through, 
spinous and stiff, lacy with elegant tiny leafage, and hanging 
out pairs of little pea-flowers of brilliant rose-pink in June, along 
the many brief pungent sprays. Goats, despite its spininesses, 
keep it sedulously cut into shape ; it especially loves to have 
plenty of stone and shingle in its loam, and luxuriates beneath 
the Akropolis of Siku, where the rude forefathers of the hamlet 
lie for centuries exposed, each in his collapsing coffin of wood, 
poised among the Indigoferas upon the pebbly slope of the 
hill. 
Indigofera spp. (F 452, 453, 454) have not been distributed. The 
distinctness of the last two from each other and from F 105 is 
by no means certain ; F 452 has the big habit of F 105, but 
with the fine foliage of F 312 on tall elance sprays of 5-6 feet. 
It occurs about the Nan Ho, and away to Satanee ; like all 
Indigoferas, it keeps its seed unripe until the winter frosts have 
cracked it, and it is therefore hard to secure in a ripe condition. 
Iris Henryi (F 19) is a charming little grassy frailty that runs about 
in the coarse, hot turf, midway on the blazing hills about Kiai 
Chow, and in April decks their gullies with a galaxy of milky- 
white (or sometimes palest blue) Moraea-flowers, giving the 
whole effect of Triteleias, but with a peacock-eye to the fall. 
Unfortunately, even if seed is set, it was not possible this year 
to procure any. 
Iris ensata (F 29) is a type of the ensate Iris, which forms by mats all 
over the loess downs and path-sides of China, with thin flowers of 
blue on 4-inch scapes in April. Several of the later numbers 
may refer to this species, or to others closely allied in the same 
group. 
Iris goniocarpa alpina (F 124), if it does not include two distinct 
species, begins first in the rock-ledges of the Feng S'an Ling 
above Wen Hsien, is seen below the town on hot, bare banks 
outside the wall, and again on rock-ledges and in and out among 
scant scrub above Chago — a grassy, lovely Iris, suggesting a 
smaller 7. unguicularis, with the brindlings and feline mottlings 
of I. tectorum over its broad and crested lavender falls. But it 
then, if the same, erupts in enormous abundance over the mid- 
alpine turf of Thundercrown, from 10,500 to 12,000 feet, 
enamelling all the sward with its delicate flowers. Abundant as 
it is, however, this plant marks a comparative failure. The 
summer was torrid, the pods were gone before we guessed, and, 
instead of millions of seed, we only acquired a dozen or so, not 
yet distributed. F 270, however, marks an obscure Iris, which 
may or may not be this, collected by Chinese retainers in the 
main Min S'an, where this species, if it exists, was long over 
before we got there. 
