I 1 2 The Oncocyclus Section 
Crests, small, triangular, reflexed, closely dotted and mottled with red brown. 
Stigma, entire, of a light purplish brown colour. 
Filaments, pale purplish yellow. 
Anthers , long, cream. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, trigonal, tapering ellipsoid, dehiscing below the apex. 
Seeds, globose or pyriform, red brown, with a large cream-coloured aril. 
Observations. 
This Iris has been in cultivation for a number of years, and in some gardens has become more 
nearly acclimatized to the climatic conditions of western Europe than any other Oncocyclus Iris except 
I. susiana. 
There is little doubt that this species varies in colour to some extent. For instance, in Foster’s 
notes I find that in 1889 he received a form that was sent to him from Van in Armenia by 
Dr Reynolds, and of which the standards were a pure creamy white, with only a few black-purple 
veins on the inside of the haft. The falls were closely and irregularly reticulated with red brown, the 
signal patch being nearly deep crimson. In the variety insignis, van Houtte (Gard. Chron. 1879, i. 
p. 693, fig. 100), the standards are dark, almost as dark as the falls. Regel’s var. ochracea (Gartenflora 
t. 386 (1863)) has a yellowish ground, and Baker’s var. Bellii (Hdk. I rid. p. 20) has dark lilac 
standards. The variety Perryana (Florist, 1873, 25, and Baker l.c.) resembles this latter. 
All agree, however, in possessing the curious spoon-shaped concave falls and depressed style 
branches, which give the flower an appearance quite unlike that of any other Iris. 
Reference has already been made (see p. 108) to the slender, erect and not falcate leaves borne by 
seedlings in their first season, and it may well be that the falcate character of the leaves of wild 
plants is largely the result of the conditions in which they grow, and not necessarily inherent in them. 
t/. Ewbankiana > 
•Foster in Gard. Chron. XXIX. i. p. 397, fig. 152, p. 407 (1901). 
Revue Horticole, 1901, p. 399. 
Var. Sprengeri ; see Observations. 
Synonym. 
/. Sprengeri, Siehe in Gard. Chron. 1904, II. p. 50. 
Var. Elisabethae ; see Observations. 
Synonym. 
I. Elisabet/uie, Siehe in ABZ. 1905, p. 115. 
DISTRIBUTION. Northern Persia and Asia Minor. Foster’s plants were sent to him by van Tubergen (MS), 
whose collector found them in the mountains that separate the Russian province of Transcaucasia from 
Persia at a distance of 120 versts from Askabad (Gard. Chron. l.c.). 
Diagnosis. 
I. Ewbankiana Oncocyclus ; planta gracilis ; segmenta exteriora lanceolata, convexa, patentia, venis 
tenuibus conspicuis notata. 
Description. 
Rootstock, a slender rhizome, very similar to that of I. iberica. 
Leaves, glaucous, very narrow and somewhat falcate, 6 — 8 in. long. 
Stem, 2 — 4 in. high, bearing 2 — 3 reduced leaves. 
Spatke valves , narrow pointed, not inflated, reaching above the tube, quite green and persistent 
after flowering, 2% in. long. 
Pedicel, very short. 
Ovary, bright green, cylindrical, thin walled, longer than the tube, 1 in. long. 
Tube, about ^ or f in., green, with vertical brown-purple stripes. 
Falls, lanceolate, pointed, with a broad but not very dense beard of stout yellow hairs, tipped 
with brown. The ground colour is a creamy white, marked by conspicuous irregular or jagged veins 
of a brown purple colour. The blade is convex and projects horizontally, with no tendency to be 
recurved. Signal small but conspicuous, of dark purple, almost black colour. 
Standards , obovate-lanceolate, of a creamy white ground colour, veined all over with jagged brown- 
purple veins, which are broader, more jagged and broken over the lower than over the upper part. 
On the haft, which sometimes bears about a dozen yellow, brown-tipped hairs, the veins tend to break 
up into dots. 
Styles, much arched, of an almost uniform chocolate brown, short. 
1 Named after the Rev. H. Ewbank of Ryde, a devoted cultivator of Oncocyclus Irises. 
