76 
The Apogon Section 
the capsules and seeds and of the habit and appearance of the growing plants, it seems impossible not 
to separate them into two distinct species. 
The origin of the many Japanese garden forms of this Iris has never 
been disclosed. With their usual inclination towards distortion and the 
abnormal, the Japanese seem to have aimed at increase in the size of 
the falls and decrease in the standards. It seems not impossible that in 
the early stages I. Kaempferi may with this end in view have been crossed 
with /. setosa, which is also a native of Japan, and in which the standards 
are reduced to mere bristles, while the falls are often very large. I cannot 
bring any evidence in support of this suggestion except its obvious plausi- 
bility, and it must be admitted that among large numbers of seedlings of 
Japanese forms of /. Kaempferi, no examples of, or approaches to, /. setosa 
have been known to appear. 
There is in the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Wisley an 
old shallow ditch running through what was originally a field. In this 
position numbers of imported Japanese Irises were planted by the late 
G. F. Wilson, but now the majority of them seem to have died out and 
the seedlings that have sown themselves and sprung up are largely ap- 
proximations to the type and to the white form of it. 
In Japan these hybrids are grown in special gardens, which can be 
flooded to the depth of a few inches in summer and kept comparatively 
dry in winter. During the winter months when growth is inactive, that is 
from November to February, liberal applications of strong liquid manure are 
given every two or three weeks. While growth is active, water and not 
manure must be provided. Here in England the imported plants rarely 
do well without similar treatment, unless the natural soil is unusually 
tenacious and rich. Experience both of imported Japanese plants and of 
home-raised seedlings of the type has shown that the latter are much less 
exacting in their requirements than the former, and that they may be 
readily grown and flowered in any fairly rich garden soil. A certain 
degree of moisture during the growing season is a necessity if the plants 
are to develop to their proper size. 
When transplantation is necessary, it should be carried out soon after 
the flowering season, by preference late in August or at any rate early 
in September. If the operation cannot be performed then, it should be 
postponed until growth is beginning again in March. 
Among the Japanese garden forms many double flowered plants are 
to be found in which the standards and even the style branches seem to 
have been metamorphosed into falls. This is the type of Iris that is so com- 
monly seen in Japanese decorative art, though it can scarcely be maintained 
that these monstrosities are as graceful as the typical single-flowered forms. Gorgeous colour they 
doubtless possess in a wider range, perhaps, than almost any other Iris, but the colours are not pure, 
and the effect is in some cases frankly ugly and displeasing to our western taste. 
Fig. 9. 
Capsules of I. Kattnpfcri 
(5 actual size). 
t XI. PSEUDACORUS 
Linn. Spec, plant ed. I. p. 38 (1753). 
•Plenck, Icon. t. 36 (1788). 
Lam. Encycl. III. p. 299 (1789). 
•Schneevogt, Icon. t. 20 (1793). 
•Red. Lil. IV. t. 235 (1808). 
Host, FI. Aust. I. p. 47 (1827). 
Koch, Syn. ed. 1. p. 701 (1837). 
Grisebach, Spic. fl. rum. p. 370 (1843). 
•Reichb. Icon. IX. t. cccxliv. fig. 771 (1847). 
Ambrosi, Fl. de Tirol, merid. p. 644 (1854). 
Gren. et Godr. Fl. de France, III. p. 242 (1855). 
Baker in J. L. S. XVI. p. 140 (1877). 
Hdk. Irid. p. 11 (1892). 
Nyman, Consp. p. 702 (1878), Suppl. p. 295 (1890). 
Boiss. Fl. Or. v. p. 127 (1884). 
Richter, PI. Eur. I. p. 257 (1890). 
Schinz und Keller, Fl. Schweiz, I. p. 108 (1900). 
Asch. und Graebner, Syn. ill. p. 493 (1906). 
