63 
The Apogon Section 
V. The three following subspecies ochroleuca, Monnieri and aurea are little more than varieties of I. spuria. 
a. t /. OCHROLEUCA 
Linn. Mant. II. p. 175 (1771). 
•Curt. Bot. Mag. t. 61 (1788). 
•Red. Lil. t. 350 (1812). 
•Tratt. Auswahl, no. 89 (1821). 
•Reichb. Ic. Crit. x. t. 958 (f. 1289) (1831). 
Boiss. FI. Orient. V. 129 (1884). 
Baker, Journ. L. S. XVI. 141 (1877). 
•Le Jardin, 1907, p. 200. 
Synonyms. 
I. oriental is, Miller, Gard. Diet. ed. vi. no. 9 (1768) ex parte, non Thunb. ; leones, t. 154. 
Baker, Hdk. Irid. p. 16 (1892). 
I. gigantea, Carri&re, Revue Hort. 1875, p. 356. 
Distribution. Probably a native of Western Asia Minor. 
West of Smyrna, 1854, Balansa (V) (BM). 
Phrygia, 1901, Warburg (B). 
Description. 
Rootstock , a hard, compact rhizome. 
Leaves , ensiform, 2 — 3 ft. long, an inch or more broad, rigid, dark green, slightly glaucous. They 
grow with a characteristic spiral twist. 
Stem, 3 ft. long, slightly flattened, bearing 2 — 3 reduced leaves and 1 — 2 sessile lateral clusters 
besides the terminal head. 
Spathes, 2 — 3 flowered ; valves 4 — 6 in. long, green, lanceolate, acuminate, an inch broad. 
Pedicel , 1 — 3 in. long. 
Ovary, 1 in. long, 6-ribbed with 3 deep and 3 shallow grooves, with a 1 in. hexagonal neck. 
Tube, proper — as distinct from the neck of the ovary — is funnel-shaped under £ in. long. 
Falls -, with narrow haft i£ — 2 in. long, and broad (i£ — if in.) orbicular blade, white, flushed with 
yellow at the centre, deeply and widely emarginate, reflexed at a right angle and not spreading as in 
Giildenstadtiana and notha. 
Standards, rounded cuneate, 3^ in. long, deeply and widely emarginate. 
Styles, nearly 2 in. with parallel sides. 
Crests, triangular, over half an inch long. 
Stigma, bilobed. 
Filaments, pale yellow, slightly shorter than the anthers. 
Anthers, long, of a pale buff colour. 
Pollen, orange, abundant, almost transparent, of a narrow pointed oval shape ; the extine is divided 
down one side by a narrow fissure. 
Capsule , oblong, 2 in. long, more or less rostrate with three conspicuous longitudinal ridges, each of 
which is double ; the ripe capsule dehisces along the middle line of these ridges. 
Seeds, flattened or wedge-shaped with loose, white, semi-transparent, wrinkled coats (Plate XLVIII, 
fig. 10). 
Observations. 
Miller’s name of /. orientalis can hardly be retained for this Iris because it is based on some con- 
fusion. His figure is indeed exactly /. ochroleuca except for the curious transversely spreading beard. 
His description, moreover, contains the words corollis barbatis and, though the members of this group 
often bear a kind of microscopic pubescence along the centre of the haft and of the blade of the falls, 
yet, as has been already explained at p. 13, the processes are unicellular and quite different from the 
multicellular hairs of Pogoniris beards. Our suspicions are further aroused by the fact that Miller states 
that his plants were raised from seeds brought from Carniola by Dr Pococke, a Bishop of Ossory. As 
however no such Iris is known in Carniola (see Scopoli, FI. Carniol.) nor has ever been collected there, 
there seems little doubt that Miller's plant is based on some confusion. 
The retention of the Linnaean name has the additional advantage that it allows Thunberg's name, 
/. orientalis, to be kept for the eastern relative of I. sibirica (see p. 23). 
/. ochroleuca is well known in gardens and is a fine stately plant. Seedlings show considerable 
variation in the shape and poise of the segments and in the proportion of yellow and white in the 
colouring but no purple forms of it appear to be known. It is probably a native of swampy ground in 
western Asia Minor. Foster received plants from such a locality in the neighbourhood of Ephesus, and 
Balansa's specimens from west of Smyrna appear to be identical. Cultivation is easy and is that of the 
other members of the spuria group (see p. 58). 
