The Apogon Section 27 
Little can be said of its cultivation, except that it usually does well in conditions of soil and 
moisture that would be favourable to /. sibirica. It seems, however, more impatient of dry conditions 
than I. sibirica , if my own experience with seedlings during the drought of 1911 be any criterion. 
Many which might reasonably have been expected to flower perished outright by untimely withering, 
while sibiricas of the same age and in similar conditions came through unharmed. 
When we have found the conditions in which I. Wilsoni will succeed, it should prove a great 
addition to our borders, for it will then be possible to have tall clumps of blue, white and yellow- 
flowered plants of the sibirica type. 
/. Wilsoni is very floriferous and throws up a whole sheaf of stems after the manner of /. sibirica, 
to which it seems much more closely allied than to I. oriental is , both in this respect and also in the 
long pedicels, though its seeds are much more like those of the latter than of the former. 
/. Wilsoni is distinguished from I. Forrestii by its larger growth, by the broader leaves which 
have a slight midrib (see Plate II), by the long pedicels, by the shape of the seeds and by the angle 
at which the standards are poised. 
+ /. Forrestii 
(Plate III) 
•Dykes, in Gard. Chron. June 25th, 1910, p. 418. 
DISTRIBUTION. Open mountain pastures on the eastern flank of the Lichiang Range in North-west Yunnan. 
Lichiang Range, 12 — 13.000 ft. 1910, Forrest, no. 6028 (E). 
Diagnosis. 
/. Forrestii Apogon ; I. Wilsoni similis sed multo minor ; caulis foliis subaequilongus ; pedicelli 
breves ; segmenta interiora erecta ; capsula major, infra truncata, supra attenuata. 
Description. 
Rootstock , a very close growing rhizome of the sibirica type. 
Leaves, narrow, linear, grassy, with glossy upper surface, but glaucous beneath, scarcely so long 
as the stems. 
Stem, hollow, with thick walls, 12 — 18 in., bearing 2 — 3 reduced leaves and usually only a single 
head of two flowers, although a lateral 1 -flowered branch sometimes develops. 
Spat lies, narrow, acuminate, keeled, 2 — 3 in. long, 1 — 2 flowered. 
Pedicels, £ — ij in. not increasing as the capsules mature. 
Ovary, £ in. trigonal, with very concave sides down each of which runs a slight ridge. 
Tube, many ribbed, broad, slightly shorter than the ovary. 
Falls. The short haft bears two central lines and broken lateral veins of brown-purple on a clear 
yellow ground. The oblong, ovate blade is in some instances very long and drooping, of a clear, lemon- 
yellow colour, which becomes deeper around the end of the style branches and is there marked with 
a few inconspicuous broken veins of brown-purple. The haft bears at the base the two projecting 
flanges, which are characteristic of the group. 
Standards. The oblanceolate blade narrows gradually to a deeply channelled haft, yellow, shorter 
than the falls, slightly divergent but much more nearly erect than those of /. Wilsoni. 
Styles , broad, short, keeled, deep yellow, often discoloured with purple, curving down on to the falls. 
Crests, not reflexed, small, quadrate, overlapping. 
Stigma, a rounded tongue. 
Filaments, creamy yellow, faintly mottled purple in the upper part. 
Anthers, cream, short. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, trigonal, with a deep broad groove down each face, so as to be nearly trefoil in section ; broad 
and truncate at the base and tapering to a point above ; the withered tube remains attached to the apex. 
Seeds, thin, flat discs, or 0 -shaped, with dark centre and pale periphery. 
Observations. 
This most pleasing Iris may be roughly described as a dwarf /. Wilsoni, from which it differs 
in the less glaucous leaves, which rather resemble those of /. Clarkei in possessing a glossy upper 
surface, in the clearer yellow, unveined flowers, in the upright and not spreading standards and in the 
capsules and seeds (see Plates II and III). 
Little can be said at present of its cultivation except that it has so far succeeded to some extent 
under the same conditions of soil and moisture as /. sibirica and /. Wilsoni, though it is scarcely so 
tolerant of drought as the former proves to be when well established. 
The few plants which I have already seen in flower, and which I owe to the kindness of Professor 
Bayley Balfour and Mr A. K. Bulley, for whom the seeds were obtained by Mr George Forrest, have 
been enough to prove that the segments of the flower are variable in shape. Those forms in which 
the blade of the falls is longest are the most handsome and desirable from the ornamental point of 
view. In some the blade is short and small and this defect greatly detracts from the appearance of 
the plant. 
4—2 
