41 
The Apogon Section 
Kern Co., Green Mts, 1 888, Palmer (K) (BM) (P). 
San Bernardino Mountains, 1895, Parish No. 3760 (B)\ 
1899, Hall (K) (B). 
Bear Valley, 1900, Davidson, No. 2241 (W) 1 . 
San Diego Co., Lake Cuyamaca, 1903, Le Roy Adams (E). 
Description. 
Rootstock , a slender, hard, wiry, short creeping rhizome. 
Leaves, linear, somewhat thick and firm, yellowish green, finely veined, 8 — 12 in. long by J to 
^ in. broad. 
Stem, slender, wiry, 6 — 10 in. to the base of the spathes, usually bearing a sheathing leaf. 
Spathe valves, firm, green, keeled, lanceolate, i-J — 4 in. long, one valve being often set an inch 
or more below the other on the stem ; usually 2-flowered. 
Pedicel ’ 1 — 3 in. long. 
Ovary, 6-ribbed, almost cylindrical. 
Tube, very short, of a yellowish green colour. 
Falls, obovate cuneate, emarginate, narrowing abruptly at the base, of a pale creamy yellow colour 
with a raised yellow central ridge and veins of a deeper tone. Round the end of the central ridge the 
surface of the blade is covered with minute papillae, scarcely visible to the naked eye. 
Standards, oblanceolate cuneate, slightly longer than the falls, of a creamy pale yellow, veined with 
a deeper shade. 
Styles, of a pale straw colour. 
Crests, quadrate, overlapping. 
Stigma , a triangular tongue. 
Filaments, pale yellow, ciliate. 
Anthers, creamy, reaching the stigma. 
Pollen, creamy. 
Capsule, about an inch long, nearly cylindrical, but slightly 6-ribbed. 
Seeds, cubical or nearly so, with coarsely wrinkled yellowish brown coats, the latter being firmly 
attached to the seeds proper, not loose as in I. spuria. 
Observations. 
When this iris was first discovered by Hartweg in 1848 in the mountains of Sacramento in 
California, it was recognised as coming very near to I. tenax Dougl. It was not until Baker 
worked at the genus that it was separated as a distinct species. Even then no clear distinction 
was drawn between the two. In fact, the differentiae are hard to find. The most obvious difference 
lies in the colour of the flowers, which in /. Hartwegii are always of a pale straw colour, and yet, 
though seedlings have shown no variation, no great importance can be attached to mere colour as 
a specific character. Moreover, /. Hartwegii agrees with /. tenax in one remarkable characteristic, 
namely in the arrangement of the inflorescence, which is of a type not often found in other species. 
In both, when two flowers are present, the lower spathe valve is set some distance below the other 
outer valve and the pedicel of the first flower is very short, while that of the second, which emerges 
from between the two inner valves, is much longer (see Plate IX). 
On the whole, we are perhaps almost justified in regarding I. tenax and I. Hartwegii as sub- 
species or as local forms of one species, especially as such specimens as Davidson’s from the San 
Bernardino Mountains (W) have purple flowers and are therefore indistinguishable from /. tenax, at 
any rate as herbarium specimens. 
I. Hartwegii is not common in cultivation in this country, partly because it can rarely be trans- 
planted with success except when growth is active in spring or early summer and partly, no doubt, 
because it is at best a weak-growing and rather insignificant species. It is best propagated from 
seeds, which germinate freely and which should be sown where the plants are to remain. In its 
native home in California it grows in very loose soil, either red volcanic debris or granitic sand, in 
dry pine woods, where it seldom gets really wet. We must not, however, infer from this fact that 
it will prosper in the shade in England, for the dankness of shady places in our gardens must be 
very different from the shade of pine trees under the hot Californian sun. Experience of its culti- 
vation has shown that it does well in light sandy non-calcareous soil in a sunny, well-drained position. 
The plants that I have had in cultivation were raised from seeds, which I owed to the kindness 
of Mr Carl Purdy. 
N.B. Since the above was written I have received a letter from Mr S. B. Parish containing 
a description of his 1 . Hartwegii var. atislralis \ This is the plant which Foster was inclined 
to name I. Parishii ", without, however, ever proceeding to the actual publication of the name. 
1 These are apparently examples with purple flowers. 
3 See Erythrea vi. p. 86 (1898). 
* Purdy’s statement in The Garden for Jan. 1st, 1898, to the effect that Foster described as I. Parishii the Iris from 
the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California, which had been long looked upon as I. missouriensis, is apparently based 
on a misapprehension. Among Foster’s papers I find two letters from Parish on the subject The first, dated 15th Jan. 1897, 
asks for a description of the plant to which Foster had tentatively given the name of I. Parishii. The second, written on 
6 
D. 
