The Oncocyclus Section 
Observations. 
This Iris was rightly named paradoxa, “the unexpected,” for its standards are four times as wide 
as the falls, which look and feel like a narrow strip of black velvet. 
It is not a robust species nor is it at all easy to keep from year to year in England. It was 
partly for this reason that Foster crossed this Iris with several strong-growing Pogoniris, such as 
/. variegata and /. pallida. The result in each case was a plant midway between the two parents, 
less vigorous than the Pogoniris but yet able to grow on from year to year under ordinary cultivation. 
The feature of both parvar (or parsam, for Foster himself told me that he had forgotten exactly what 
Pogoniris he had used) and parpall \ which obviously resembles a pallida , is the broad velvety beard, 
which however is not quite so dense as that of I. paradoxa but allows the light ground colour to be 
seen. 
For cultivation see the remarks on the Oncocyclus group on p. 108. 
1 1. IB ERIC A 
Hoffmann, Descr. Plant. Iber. etc. 1806 in Comm. Soc. Phys. Mosq. I. p. 41 (1808). 
Steven, ex Bieb. FI. Taur. Cauc. 1. 30 (1808). 
•Trans. Russ. Hort. Soc. 1863, t. 112. 
•Gartenflora, t. 386 (1863). 
[N.B. This plate shows the type and a variety oc/iracea in which the ground colour is bright yellow.] 
•Gartenflora, t. 713 (1872). 
•Revue Horticole, 1873, p. 370. 
•Flore des Serres, t 1963 (1873). 
Baker in J. L. S. XVI. p. 142 (1877). 
Hdk. Irid. p. 60 (1892). 
•Radde, Kauk. Mus. II. t. 1 (1901). 
•Lynch, Book of Iris, p. 106 (1904). 
Synonyms. 
?/. georgica , Gueldenstadt, Reise, I. 420 (1787). 
I. Helena, C. Koch in Linnaea, XXI. p. 639 (1848). 
Regel in Gartenflora, 1872, p. 34. 
?/. Hcylandiana, Boiss. et Reut. ex Baker in J. L. S. XVI. p. 142 (1877); see also p. 120. 
I. susiana, Zeller, Holy Land (1876). 
Oncocyclus ibericus, Siemss. BZ. IV. p. 706 (1846). 
DISTRIBUTION. The Transcaucasian Provinces of the Russian Empire, Armenia and Northern Persia. 
Caucasus. No locality, 1831, Prescott (K). 
Tiflis, 18 — , Fischer (K). 
18 — , Szovitz (K) (B). 
Kisich (PKasach) on R. Akstafa, 1842, Hohenacker (BM) (V). 
Armenia. Erzeroum, 18 — , (K). 
18 — , Calvert (C). 
Persia. Aderbeidjan, 18 — , Aucher Eloy (K) (V). 
Diagnosis. 
I. iberica Oncocyclus ; ob segmenta exteriora concava, interioribus multo saturatiora facile dinoscitur. 
Description. 
Rootstock , a slender rhizome, spreading by means of stolons. 
Leaves, 5 to 6 to a tuft, often very falcate, linear, glaucous, 4 — 6 in. long, £ — £ in. broad. 
Stem, one-flowered, 3 — 6 in. high, bearing a single bractlike leaf about the middle, and springing 
from a tuft of 3 — 4 reduced leaves. 
Spathe valves , lanceolate, acute, 2 — 3 in. long, reaching above the tube, green, often flushed with 
pale pinkish purple. 
Pedicel, very short. 
Ovary, cylindrical. 
Tube, greenish, cylindrical, an inch long. 
Falls, at first horizontal, but rapidly becoming deflexed, distinctly concave, the blade of an orbicular 
or rounded oblong shape and the haft broad. In the centre of the blade is a triangular signal patch of 
purplish black, the apex lying under the style, outside which the colouring consists of a close network 
of irregular thickset brownish-purple veins on a whitish-yellow ground. The diffuse beard consists of 
short purple-brown hairs. 2^ — 3 in. long by 2 in. broad. 
Standards, connivent, the blade orbicular, with a short haft, much paler and often smaller than 
the falls, the colouring being composed of faint dots and broken veins of purplish brown or bluish 
purple on a silvery-white ground, 2% in. long by 2 in. broad. 
Styles, deflexed very abruptly, lying close down on the falls, with a slight median ridge, very 
convex, of a dark purplish brown colour at the base, the upper part being almost cream, dotted with 
brown purple. 
