152 
The Pogoniris Section 
Servia. Vranje (Mt Pljackavica), 1896, Adamovic (K) (V) (B). 
1894, Adamovic (B). 
1895, Adamovic (K). 
Mt Basara, 1896, Adamovic (V). 
Vrska-Cuka near Zajecar, 1890, Adamovic (B). 
Pirot, 1892, Jovanovic (V). 
No locality, 18 — , Pancid (K). 
1845, Gutch (C). 
Bulgaria , 1903, Adamovic (B). 
Eastern Routnelia. Stanimaka, 1892, Velenovsky (V). 
1894, Stribrny (E) (P) (K). 
1895, Stribrny (K) (BM) (E). 
1896, Stribrny (E). 
1903, Adamovic (B). 
Sliven (Mt Catalkaje), 1893, Degen (V). 
1893, Wagner (BM). 
Macedonia. Gul tepe near Kereci koj (Salonika), 1909, Dimonie (E). 
Salonika, 18 — , Nadji (B), 1901, Adamovic (V). 
Neochori (Salonika), 1869, Kriiper (B). 
Kopriilii (Koprili), 1904, Bierback (BM). 
Galatchia, 1892, Nadji (B). 
Mt Rhodope, 1903, Adamovic (B). 
“Ex horto meo,” 1877, Janka (V). 
Diagtwsis. 
/. Reichenbachii Pogoniris ; I. chamaciri haud dissimilis sed spathae plerumque biflorae, valvis acute 
carinatis. 
Description. 
Rootstock, a compact rhizome with crowded growths. 
Leaves, ensiform, glaucescent, 3 — 6 in. by ^ — £ in. at flowering time, increasing in size later, more 
or less falcate. 
Stem, 6 — 10 in. long, 1 -headed, and usually bearing one or two reduced leaves. 
Spathes , 1 — 2-flowered, valves green, or only very slightly scarious, navicular, acutely keeled. i* — 2 in. 
by \ — £ in. 
Pedicel , very short. 
Ovary, cylindrical with six grooves. 
Tube, 1 — 1£ in. long, funnel-shaped. 
Falls , obovate-cuneate, with thick beard of close set, short, silky hairs. 
(a) Colour a peculiar reddish brown purple, almost chocolate. In this the beard is composed 
of more or less bluish white hairs. 
( fi ) Colour yellow, sometimes with a tinge of green and with a few brown or purple veins at 
the base of the segments. Beard orange. 
Standards, oblong elliptical, narrowing sharply to a short canaliculate haft, emarginate, of the 
same colour as the falls. 
Styles, a long oval, keeled, either purplish or yellow. 
Crests, small, subquadrate, with serrate edge. 
Stigma, oblong, entire, prominent. 
Filaments, much longer than the anthers. 
Anthers, short. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, a long ellipse with six shallow grooves. 
Seeds, pyriform, wrinkled, brown. 
Observations. 
This Iris has long been a source of confusion because it has not been recognised that just as we 
find many colour-forms of /. pumila and /. chamaeiris, so are there also colour-forms of this Balkan Iris. 
In the various herbarium collections I have seen authentic plants of Janka’s /. balkana (purple), Beck’s 
I. bosniaca (yellow) and Pancid's I. serbica (yellow), and moreover 1 have cultivated all three and raised 
seedlings of them and I have now not the slightest doubt that /. balkana is only the purple form of 
/. Reichenbachii, of which the other two names are synonyms. It has been stated that /. serbica grows 
on limestone and /. bosniaca on granite and this may be the case but that is no reason for giving them 
specific rank. 
As herbarium specimens, it is sometimes not easy to distinguish these Balkan plants from /. chamaeiris, 
but the chief differences are to be looked for in the flattened, acutely keeled spathes (those of /. chamaeiris 
are more tubular and only one valve is slightly, if at all, keeled) and in the thin transparent texture 
of the segments of the flowers (see Plate XXXIV). The yellow flowers are often slightly veined 
with purple and the purple forms are of that curious, almost chocolate shade, that occurs in another 
Balkan species, I. mellita. 
