118 
The Oncocyclus Section 
•Bot. Mag. 7867 (1902). 
This magnificent Iris was named by Foster after the Rev. T. G. Gates of the American Mission at Mardin 
through whose assistance a stock of it was procured by Sintenis for Max Leichtlin in 1888. 
Distribution. The neighbourhood of Mardin in Asia Minor. 
No herbarium specimens of wild plant are known, except perhaps Mardin, 1888, Sintenis (K). 
Diagnosis. See the remarks on p. 107. 
Description. 
Rootstock , stout, short-creeping. 
Leaves , linear-ensiform, slightly glaucous, 9 — 12 in. long, ^ | in. wide. 
Stem , about a foot or eighteen inches long with one or more clasping leaves. 
Spat/ic valves, 1 -flowered, 4 ins. or more in length, green, striated, pointed, rounded, somewhat 
inflated, reaching above the tube. 
Pedicel, short. 
Ovary, i£ in. long, rounded trigonal with broad groove on each side. 
Tube , 1^ — 2 in. long, gradually expanding above, green with purple spots and a broad band of purple 
in continuation of the standards. 
Falls. The haft, which is nearly an inch broad and somewhat greenish on the under side with veins 
and dots showing through, expands gradually into the ovate blade, which is as much as 4 or 5 inches 
wide. The ground colour is a greyish or greenish white, marked with very fine veins, formed of rows of 
small purple spots, and finely dotted with purple in the median portion. The greater part of the haft 
is covered with crowded hairs, irregularly scattered in groups, of a grey, greenish or brownish colour, 
flecked with purple ; on the blade these hairs divide and embrace a small purplish signal. 
Standards , orbicular, about 4 — 5 ins. across, somewhat suddenly narrowed to the purplish claw. The 
colouring is similar to that of the falls, except that the purplish veins become more pronounced in the 
median region towards the haft. 
Styles, much arched and sharply keeled, thickly spotted with purple on a creamy white ground. 
Crests, subquadrate, with finely serrate edge, spotted and streaked purple on cream. 
Stigma, semi-circular, entire. 
Filaments, creamy white, often tinged with red. 
Anthers, creamy white. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, very large, as much as 5 in. in length. 
Seeds, pyriform, with conspicuous white aril. 
Observations. 
The flowers of this species are larger than those of any other Iris, except perhaps some of the 
Kaempferi hybrids. The colour is not handsome nor so beautiful as that of I. Lortelii. At a distance 
of a few feet the effect is a pale pearly grey, and the majestic size of the bloom is its most striking 
feature. A number of magnificent flowers of this Iris that I once saw in a neighbour's garden was a 
sight never to be forgotten. 
That this Iris will flower freely under certain conditions is proved by a photograph reproduced in 
The Garden for July 31st, 1897, p. 83, representing a bed bearing hundreds of flower spikes in 
Van Tubergen’s nursery at Haarlem. 
For cultivation see the introduction to the Oncocyclus section. 
t I. Lortetii » 
(See Plate XXVII) 
Barbey in Boiss. FI. Or. V. p. 131 (1881). 
Herbor. Levant, t. 7 (1882). 
Bot Mag. t. 7251 (1892). 
•Gard. Chron. 1892, II. p. 152, fig. 27. 
•Garden, Feb. 18, 1893, t. 897. 
•Revue Hort. 1902, p. 404. 
•Revue Hort. Beige, 1906, p. 173. 
Distribution. It has only been found on the southern slopes of Lebanon at an altitude of 2000 ft., where it 
grows among dry bushy tracts of Quercus coccifera. 
N. Galilee; Safed (Hunin), 1897, Bornmuller (B). 
Diagnosis. See the remarks on p. 107. 
' Named after its discoverer Dr Lortet of Lyons. 
