The Pogoniris Section 
167 
Falls. Obovate, with a wedge-shaped haft, of a pale mauve purple colour, except on the haft, 
which bears veins of a deeper brown purple colour on a paler ground. The thick beard is in front 
white tipped with yellow and behind of a deeper orange colour. 
Standards. Obovate with a short channelled haft, of a slightly paler shade of mauve purple than 
the falls; the haft is slightly veined with brown purple. 
Styles, broad, keeled, pale at the edges and more deeply coloured along the centre. 
Crests , small, triangular. 
Stigma, broad, entire. 
Filaments, pale mauve, much longer than the anthers. 
Anthers, small, cream. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, oblong, trigonal ; a form of I. pallida from Monte Brione near Riva 1 has a short, broad, 
six-ribbed capsule, but I believe that this plant is a hybrid of I. pallida and /. Cengialti. 
Seeds, dark red brown, compressed, angular, irregularly cubical. 
Observations. 
If this Iris is really, as appears to be the case, a native of the valleys of southern Tirol, it is 
at least curious that there is no definite trace of it in botanical literature 
before 1789. It is possible that the Iris latifolia major Illyrica of the 
Hortus Eystettensis, Plant. Vern. Ordo vm, Fol. iv, No. 3, and of 
C. Bauhin’s Pinax, p. 31, which was described as being “coloris dilute 
coerulei pallescentis " and as having a somewhat stouter rhizome than 
I. florentina, may be identified as I. pallida and in that case it is difficult 
to see why Linnaeus omitted it from his list of Iris species. 
No one who had ever seen I. pallida develop its inflorescence could 
fail to separate it from /. germanica , for it is distinguished at once by its 
silvery-white scarious spathes, even when the plant is only in bud, by the 
very short tube, by the very glaucous leaves, which do not grow to any 
extent during the winter as do those of I. germanica, and by the broad 
spreading character of the falls of the flowers. The stem attains a height of 
about three feet and bears a more complicated inflorescence than that 
of /. germanica (cf. Fig. 22, p. 167, and Fig. 21, p. 163). It is not 
entirely erect, for the internodes tend to zigzag slightly. The bracts, which 
sheathe the bases of the lateral branches, are all as scarious as the spathes 
except that which clothes the lowest branch, which remains green. 
The finest form of /. pallida is that which is known in gardens as 
dalmatica J , though its native locality has never apparently been exactly 
determined. The foliage of this is broader than that of the type, being 
often 2 in. wide or even wider, and very glaucous. The stem is rather 
shorter than that of the type but is thicker, and the flowers, which are 
supported on shorter lateral stems, are of a lilac shade of purple and 
have considerable substance. The tendency of the falls to spread rather 
than to droop is very marked. 
I. pallida is separated by another character from /. germanica, namely, 
by its compressed angular seeds, a feature which also distinguishes it from 
/. Cengialti ; in the latter the seeds are globose or pyriform and of a greyish Fra 
colour, instead of irregularly cubical and red brown. drawing of one bud showing 
/. plicata, which is to all intents a pallida except in colour (cf. /. the w h 0 Uy scarious spathes. 
Swertii *, which stands in the same relation to /. Cengialti), is probably 
either an approximately albino form or a hybrid of /. pallida in which some factor or combination of 
factors succeeds in suppressing the purple colour except for the veins on the edges of the standards 
and falls. Plants of this type, of which “Mme Chereau” is perhaps the best known example, are 
common in gardens and the amount and exact shade of the veining vary considerably. 
Another form of /. pallida has the foliage variegated with broad bands of yellow, a feature which 
to most observers will probably appear more striking than beautiful. .... 
Several forms of /. pallida have been described as growing wild in Sicily, but their behaviour m 
winter hardly suggests that they are natives of a country with so genial a wmter cl.mate that the 
undoubtedly native /. fieudopumila can grow rapidly with the advent of the autumn rams and reta n 
its foliage throughout fhe winter. 1. is, of course, possible that the Jorms , ,« quesuon were ongmahy 
introduced from Northern Italy and that they have become natural, sed in S.c.ly m the course of ages, 
and moreover they appear for the most part to be of hybri origin. 
1 See Foster in Card. Chron. 1886, 1. p. 5 ®^- 
* Cf. Journ. Hort ser. 3, lvi. p. 545 - 
* Named after Sweert, who figured it in his Flonlegium 
I. aphytla, Hort. non Linn.; cf. # Geel, Sert. Bot. vol. 1. (1830) 
(1612), t. 40, fig. 3, as Chamaeiris oris coeruleis alba, Syn. 
and • Sweet, Brit. Flow. Gdn. ser. 11. vol. III. t. 254 (1834). 
