58 
Fig. 5. Capsules of /. spuna. 
The Apogon Section 
The cultivation of all the members of this group is simple. They will grow in almost any soil 
from the heaviest clay to the lightest sand, but seem to prefer a sunny 
position in a rather stiff loam well enriched with humus. When once 
established, clumps should not be disturbed, but be liberally fed from 
autumn to early spring by mulching with leaf-mould or old, well-rotted 
manure. When growth becomes active in spring, the plants can absorb 
a large amount of moisture but seem to flower all the better in the 
following year if the rhizomes are well roasted by the sun in the late 
summer after the flowering season. 
Transplantation and division are best effected soon after the flowers 
have faded, for then the growth of new roots from the rhizomes is 
active. At any later period these roots are apt to be broken and the 
plants suffer more or less from the effects of the winter and during the 
following season. 
The plants are for the most part slow of increase, for comparatively 
few lateral buds develop on the rhizome. Most of the energy seems to 
be concentrated in the terminal shoot, and the rhizome consequently 
grows on from year to year in an approximately straight line. 
Although the rhizomes are often an inch or more in diameter, their 
substance is rather fibrous than fleshy, and consequently, when out of 
the ground, they will not long resist drought. This makes the trans- 
ference of plants over any great distance a matter of some difficulty, 
for it is almost impossible to ensure moisture and exclude decay during 
a journey lasting several weeks. I have repeatedly failed to revive 
rhizomes of various members of the spuria group which I have received 
from Asia in an absolutely dry condition, although rhizomes of Pogoniris 
have succeeded under identical treatment. This fact should be remem- 
bered when transplanting these Irises, and the rhizomes should not be 
allowed to remain out of the ground for any length of time or to become 
parched. It also points to the advisability of the use of seeds when it 
is desired to introduce into cultivation some wild form from the interior 
of Asia. 
Seeds germinate fairly readily, but the growth of the young plants is comparatively slow and, though 
some may flower in their second season, — in two years, that is, from the time when the seeds germinated, 
— yet the majority grow on for at least another year before the blooms appear. 
For reasons which will presently be explained, it is probably impossible to apply the name of /. spuria 
to any particular plant. There can be little doubt that Linnaeus grouped together under the name a 
number of forms, which are more or less distinct from one another although they all bear a strongly 
marked family likeness. He describes the species 1 as a beardless Iris, with six-ribbed fruit, a round stem 
and nearly linear leaves, and an investigation of his authorities shows that he may have known, at any 
rate, the existence of the Spanish, French and Austrian forms. For instance, he quotes the Hortus 
Cliffortianus, p. 19, in which we get a reference to Clusius, Hist. 1. p. 228. Clusius there mentions an 
Iris which he had found in 1563 growing near Oppenheim on the Rhine and near Mandersdorf, five 
miles from Vienna, and again later in 1579 near Lindwa in Hungary. On the other hand, Linnaeus 
introduces a reference to the Spanish and French forms by quoting C. Bauhin, Pinax, p. 32. The latter 
mentions both I. angustifolia media , Clus. Hisp. p. 286, and angustifolia major , Clus. Hist. 1. p. 228. In 
his History of Spanish Plants, Clusius makes a point of distinguishing between the German plant, which 
he calls angusti/olia 7 najor and the angustifolia media , which he had found growing in Spain near Valentia 
and also in Gallia Narbonensis. 
In 1910 Bernatsky and Janchen (OBZ. p. 335) sought to differentiate the German and Austrian 
plant from the form that is found in the south of France. They stated that the former is of taller and 
more luxuriant growth, with short stem-leaves that expose the upper part of each internode. The latter 
they define as differing in its more slender growth and in its longer stem-leaves that cover almost the 
whole of the internodes and surpass them in length. To the latter they wished to give the name of 
/. spathulata Lamarck, while the former was named /. subbarbata by Joo (cf. Verh. Siebenb. Ver. 
Naturw. 11. (1851) p. 98) in reference to the pubescence which is visible even to the naked eye on a 
close examination of the central ridge on the falls’. 
The objections to this scheme are firstly that Lamarck (Encycl. in. p. 300, 1789) gives Austria as 
well as the south of France as the habitat of his I. spathulata , and secondly that he has also a name 
/. maritima, borne by a specimen in his Herbarium at the Paris Jardin des Plantes which is almost 
1 Spec. Plant, ed. 1. p. 39, no. 12 (1753). 
* A microscopic examination of this pubescence shows it, however, to consist of unicellular processes, which are quite 
distinct in structure from the multicellular hairs of the beards of Pogoniris. Moreover, this pubescence is a marked feature of 
most forms of I. spuria. 
