The Oncocyclus Section 
109 
winter. If, however, only the ordinary trade-supplies are available, it is advisable to pack up the 
rhizomes in some such material as buckwheat husks and send them to be cold-stored at a temperature 
of 30 — 32 0 Fahr. until about the end of February. Then they can be planted in the open ground and 
should grow quickly with a far greater chance of success than those autumn-planted rhizomes, which 
had no chance of anchoring themselves in the ground before the frosts came. 
One fact must not be forgotten and that is that healthy plants put forth new root-fibres soon after 
the flowers have faded. In the wild state the ground is probably by that time so quickly becoming 
parched that these roots, even if they develop fully, are not induced to send out lateral branches until 
the ground becomes moist once more in autumn. In cultivation here it will be found that, if the plants 
are lifted soon after the flowers have faded, these straight thonglike roots will remain dormant until the 
autumn and quickly branch out as soon as they come into contact with moist earth again. It is 
therefore important that these roots should be preserved intact, if an annual lifting is practised, instead 
of covering the plants with lights, as a means of providing the necessary resting period. (The alternative 
of lifting the plants is not to be recommended, for the annual upheaval makes it impossible for the 
plants ever to become really established or to do themselves justice.) 
Directions for dealing with Oncocyclus seeds will be found in the chapter on raising Irises from 
seed at the end of the book. 
The members of the Oncocyclus section all agree in possessing : 
1. Seeds with a large, creamy-white aril. 
2. An unbranched stem, bearing a single flower. 
3. Green, narrow, unkeeled, almost tubular spathes. 
4. A tube slightly longer than the elongated tapering ovary. 
The various species 1 may be separated as follows : 
Plant slender, leaves narrow, not more than £ in. wide, stem not more than 6, 
or at most 8, in. long. j. 
Plant stouter, leaves broader, stem usually at least a foot and sometimes two 
feet long. 8. 
1. 
3 - 
{ Outer segments short, narrow, strap-shaped, only a quarter or a third the width 
of the inner segments. /. paradoxa (p. 1 10). 
Outer segments more than half as large as the inner segments. 2. 
( Outer segments deflexed, concave on the upper surface. 
Outer segments extended horizontally for at least half their length, convex on 
the upper surface. 
f Flowers concolor, not conspicuously veined. 
(Flowers conspicuously veined. 
/. iberica (p. in). 
3 - 
4 - 
5 - 
4 - 
5 - 
{ Flowers yellow or red purple with signal patch of a deeper shade of the same 
colour. 
Flowers purple black with a yellow signal patch, 
f Veins thin, leaving the ground colour clear and unobscured. 
( Veins thick, diffuse, tending to obscure the ground colour. 
I. Bamumae (p. II 5). 
I. atropurpurea (p. 122). 
6 . 
7 - 
( Segments tapering, falls extending horizontally. 
( Segments tapering, falls reflexing beyond the middle. 
( Segments broad, standards orbicular. 
( Segments oblong, standards tapering. 
/. Ewbankiana (p. 112). 
I. acutiloba (p. 113). 
I. Sari (p. 114), 
/. vuda (p. 1 17). 
8 . 
The Palestine or Syrian group of closely allied forms, which can only be separated by their colour. 
i. Flower immense, of a pale grey, produced by delicate faint purplish veins 
on a silvery-white ground. 
ii. Standards faintly veined with pale violet on white, falls dotted and veined 
with crimson or red brown. 
iii. Standards heavily veined with blue or purple, falls closely dotted and veined 
with dark purple on a yellow ground. 
iv. Segments closely veined and dotted with deep violet black on a grey-white 
ground. 
v. Similar to iv. but less closely veined, so that the grey-white ground is much 
more conspicuous. 
vi. Standards veined and dotted with reddish black on grey, falls similar but 
with the ground colour almost entirely hidden. 
I. Gatesii (p. 117). 
/. Lortctii (p. 118). 
I. Bismarckiana (p. 119). 
I. susiana (p. 120). 
I. sofarana (p. 121). 
/. atrofusca (p. 121). 
1 N.B. In this section, more weight is given to colour than in any other. If this character is left out of consideration, it 
becomes impossible to separate several plants which bear specific names. It seems desirable to make some concession here to 
horticultural convenience. 
