32 
The Apogon Section 
Observations. 
This American species is quite distinct from the rest of the sibirica group but yet sufficiently 
closely allied with them to be included in it. 
It is characterised by the peculiarly slender, wiry, solid stem, which does not grow straight but 
which is curiously bent and yet erect. It is also easily distinguished by the very widely creeping 
rhizome, which sends up the tufts of leaves at some distance apart. The capsules are most con- 
spicuously winged at the angles and contain pale brown smooth-skinned cubical seeds, distinguishable 
from those of any other Iris. 
The flower stems are freely produced and the graceful habit of the whole plant has a charm 
of its own. The flowers are not large but of a pleasing pale blue colour. 
Seedlings have so far shown no variation and cultivation presents no difficulty. It is that of 
the other members of the group (see page 19). It will succeed in a position where it is in the 
shade during part of the day. 
II. The Tenuifolia Group. 
The three Irises, which form this group, namely /. tenuifolia Pallas, I. ventricosa Pallas and 
I. Bungei Maxim, are very imperfectly known and it is perhaps uncertain whether a better knowledge 
of them will not show that they really represent less than three distinct species. It is curious that 
Maximowicz in describing I. Bungei (Bull. Acad. P^t. xxvi. 1880, p. 509) should have distinguished 
it from /. ventricosa and from I. songarica , to which latter indeed the plant bears but a very slight 
resemblance and yet that he should have failed to mention I. tenuifolia to which it is undoubtedly 
much more closely allied. 
The difficulties that surround these plants are increased by the fact that, in common with other 
Eastern and Central Asiatic Apogon Irises, they have very slender rhizomes, which will not survive 
complete desiccation. To work out the problem of their affinities it will be necessary to obtain fresh 
seeds. Of several consignments of I. tenuifolia that have reached me, most of the plants have failed 
to revive after the journey and the few that have begun to grow have produced very scanty leaves 
and continued flowerless. Seedlings would probably grow with much greater vigour and give us 
flowers in due course. 
Meanwhile the following descriptions of these three species are necessarily incomplete. They are 
based on the original accounts and on the herbarium specimens that I have seen in the various 
collections and to some extent on imported roots growing in my garden. 
No cultural directions can be given for there appears to be no record of the successful cultivation 
of these species in the gardens of Western Europe. 
It is a curious fact that all the herbarium specimens of these species are surrounded by masses 
of remains of old leaves either burnt, or browsed, off at the length of 3 or 4 inches. The presence 
of these sheathing fibres often makes it extremely difficult to see much of the scanty leaves and 
short stem that spring from their midst. It is probable that all these species grow on steppes, 
where the dried remains of the vegetation of the previous year are burnt off in early spring to 
allow the young shoots to grow and provide food for the herds and flocks of the pastoral nomads. 
( Spathes narrow, acuminate, membranous. I. tenuifolia (p. 32). 
Spathes broad, pointed, oval, rigid. 1. 
Spathes covered with a network of transverse fibres between the upright parallel I. ventricosa (p. 34). 
I. ribs. 
Spathes covered with upright parallel ribs with no network of transverse fibres. I. Bungei (p. 34). 
t /. TENUIFOLIA 
•Pallas, Reise, III. p. 714, no. 66, t. C. fig. 2 (1773). 
Ledebour, FI. Ross. IV. p. 93 (1853). 
Maximowicz, Ind. Mongol, p. 485, in Prim. FI. Amur. Suppl. (1859). 
in Bull. Acad. Pdt. XXVI. p. 51 1 (1880). 
Mdl. Biol. X. p. 697 (1880). 
Franchet, Plant. David. I. p. 297 (1884). 
Baker in Gdn. Chron. Ser. II. vi. p. 144 (1876). 
in J. L. S. xvi. p. 138 (1877). 
Hdk. I rid. p. 4 (> 392 ). 
Synonyms. 
I. acaulis, Pall. Iter. III. p. 213 (1773). 
•/. Loczyi , Kanitz in Plant. Exped. Szechen. p. 58, t. 6, fig. 2 (1891). 
/. Rcgeli', Maxim, ex Regel, Act. Hort. Pet. VI. p. 495 (1879). 
in Bull. Acad. P£t. XXVI. p. 526 (1880). 
1 This seems to be only a minute form of I. tenuifolia. The so-called beard is probably only the microscopic pubescence 
not uncommon on the falls of Apogon Irises. Maxim, (l.c.) himself says of I. Bungei "sepala ungue non glabra." 
