146 
The Pogoniris Section 
Styles, almost colourless with a central blue keel. 
Crests, triangular, acuminate. 
Stigma, entire. 
Filaments, pale violet. 
Anthers, bluish. 
Pollen , bluish. 
Capsule, not seen. 
Seeds, brown, wrinkled, pyriform. 
Brotero l.c. remarks that this Iris may have paler or yellowish white flowers. I have seen no 
specimens of this, but one has recently been obtained from the Moncorvo neighbourhood. 
Observations. 
This Iris was first observed by Clusius in the neighbourhood of Coimbra in Portugal about 1565 
and described and figured by him as Iris lusitanica seu bijlora on pp. 282-3 of his History of Rare 
Spanish Plants (1576). He there states that he found plants in flower in November and gave it the 
name of bijlora on account of its habit of flowering in the autumn as well as in spring. Clusius’ figure 
shows the small acute spathes and the clasping bract-like leaves on the stem and there is a similar 
figure in the Hortus Eystettensis with the name of portugalica. The bijlora in that work is almost 
certainly the Central European aphylla, and it is probably by a misquotation of these two figures that 
Linnaeus first began the confusion between /. bijlora and I. aphylla , which continued down to, and 
even after, the publication of Brotero's /. subbijlora which is expressly stated to be the bijlora of 
Clusius but not of Linnaeus. 
On examining some specimens of this Iris in the Kew herbarium, I found one or two examples 
from Monsanto in the immediate neighbourhood of Lisbon of an Iris that appeared to differ from the 
typical /. subbijlora by the much longer spathes and tube. A description was published under the 
name of /. lisbonetisis in the Gard. Chron. for March 5th, 1910, p. 146, and this led to some corre- 
spondence with Professor Henriques of Coimbra, who has most kindly sent me recently a series of 
plants, all collected in the neighbourhood of Lisbon and showing intermediate stages between the 
typical /. subbijlora and the plant that I described as I. lisbonensis. In the face of this evidence, we 
can only extend the limits of the dimensions of I. subbijlora and conclude that it is more variable in 
structure than most species of Iris fortunately appear to be. 
The cultivation of this Iris is not easy in England. The text that accompanies the figure in the 
Botanical Magazine (l.c.) states that the flowers were the first produced for fifteen years and my own 
experience has been similar. The plants need that rest in summer that they obtain on their native 
limestone rocks, and in cultivation in England this is perhaps best ensured by growing the plants in 
pots and leaving these to dry and bake in a frame for three or four months in summer. Growth 
begins again with the autumn rains and it was by this treatment that the flower was obtained from 
which Plate XXXIII was drawn. The soil in the pots should be made porous by a liberal addition of 
lime rubble but a fair amount of humus should be added in the shape of old leafsoil, for roots confined 
to a pot must have more concentrated food than when they can spread to greater distances in the 
open ground. The extraordinary summer of 1911 and the warm spring of 1912 caused some plants 
from Coimbra to flower well on an open rockery in my garden. 
In 1895 Foster received from Messrs Dammann an Iris which was collected in the mountains of 
Tunis. When it flowered it proved to be very similar in all respects to I. subbijlora. It is not now 
apparently in cultivation and no specimens from Tunis are to be found in herbarium collections. 
There exists, however, one from Tangiers and it is not impossible that this Iris will be found to be 
more widely spread in North Africa than is at present known to be the case. 
+ /. PSEUDOPUMILA 
Tinco, Cat. Hort. Panorm. 1827, p. 283. 
Parlat FI. It. ill. p. 287 (1858). 
Baker in J. L. S. XVI. p. 143 (1877). 
Hdk. I rid. p. 26 (1892). 
Synonyms. 
/. panormitana, Todaro, Nuov. Gen. e Spec. I. p. 3 (1856). 
Lojac. FI. Sic. ill. p. 70 (1909). 
/. pumila, Bivona, Sic. PI. II. p. 32 (1807). 
I. lutescens, Gussone, Cat. Hort. Bocc. p. 103 (1821). 
[/. Statel/ac, Tod. l.c. p. 5 (1856), is either a sport or a garden hybrid of /. pseudopumila for, when 
self-fertilised, it gives seedlings, which are typical I. pseudopumila. This was Foster’s experience 
(MS.) and it has also been my own. /. erratica, Tod. l.c. p. 10, is probably a similar hybrid and is 
illustrated in the Bot. Mag. t. 6894 (1886), under the erroneous name of I. Statellae.] 
