169 
The Pogoniris Section 
Capsule, bluntly oval in outline, with six depressions running down the sides. 
Seeds, small, pyriform or oval, greyish, not angular nor red-brown as in /. pallida. They resemble 
rather the seeds of I. pumila, except perhaps in colour. 
Observations. 
The earliest mention of I. Cengialti is probably by Clusius, Hisp. p. 284 (1576). Clusius there 
states that he had received a plant from one Alfonsius Pancius, Physician to the Duke of Ferrara, 
which he describes as an Iris producing three or four flowers of a paler purple than his Portuguese 
/. biflora ( = /. subbiflora Brot., p. 145). The first figure under the name of I. dalmatica minor 
occurs in Lobel's Kruydtboeck, which was published at Antwerp in 1581 and Lobel there mentions 
that it came to Dutch gardens from Pancius. The figure was copied in Lobel’s leones, p. 62, where 
the woodcut clearly shows the small membranous spathe valves which are so marked a feature of 
the plant. 
Subsequently, the plant seems to have been confused with a form of /. aphylla , for instance 
by Tausch in describing his /. Clusiana in Flora xii. i. Erganz. p. 49 (1829). Tausch there refers 
to Clusius and Lobel, but his expression “spatha herbacea" shows undoubtedly that he had before 
him a specimen of I. aphylla and not of /. Cengialti. 
The exact relationship of /. Cengialti to I. pallida is not yet determined. Its affinity to 
/. pallida is apparent in the wholly scarious spathes, which, however, are of a pale brown colour 
and not silvery-white as in I. pallida, in the short tube, and possibly in the fact that the two 
plants hybridise very freely and produce hybrids which are themselves fertile. The leaves, however, 
are distinctly green when contrasted with the glaucous foliage of /. pallida and the seeds are oval 
or pyriform and of a greyish colour, not red-brown and compressed. 
The question of the specific value of the green or glaucous character of the leaves is somewhat 
intricate. On the one hand, I. pallida fertilised with pollen of the Loppio variety of I. Cengialti 
gives plants with distinctly narrow green, as opposed to glaucous leaves 1 , while the Illyrian form 
of /. Cengialti differs from the type chiefly in its distinctly glaucous foliage. Its seeds also are larger 
and tend to become compressed, so that the var. illyrica is almost intermediate between /. pallida 
and I. Cengialti. 
The Loppio variety of /. Cengialti was collected by Foster on Monte Baldo near the Lago di 
Loppio and differs from the type in its foliage which in the early stages tends to be of a bluish- 
green by contrast with the somewhat yellow-green of /. Cengialti. It also flowers later and has 
darker, and less blue-, purple flowers and the purple line at the base of the spathes is also more 
marked. 
Cultivation is easy in a sunny well-drained position in a soil that is not deficient in lime. 
Seedlings show considerable variation in colour and it is for this reason that the claim of the Loppio 
form to a varietal name is at least doubtful. 
# # « 
The remaining names in this section probably represent plants that have no real claim to specific 
rank (see p. 173). They are retained here, since they are of some use in the garden to denote 
certain classes of hybrids. 
1 1 . AMOENA 
•De Candolle in Red. Lil. t. 336 (1812). 
•Sweet, Brit. Flow. Gdn. Ser. II. Vol. II. t. 165 (1832). 
[N.B. Sweet’s figure appears to represent a plant in which the markings on the falls are of a 
distinctly red shade.] 
Observations. 
The original description and figure of this Iris of uncertain origin depict a bearded Ins with 
white standards and falls veined with dull violet-blue on a white ground. Near the extremity of 
the blade these veins run together and almost entirely obscure the white groundwork. The spathes 
are green and the leaves are tinged with purple at the base. 
This Iris is probably a hybrid, but it is not yet possible to say with certainty what species 
must be combined to produce it. All that is certain is that among seedlings of European bearded 
Irises large numbers of this type appear. It is possible that it is merely a form or sport of 
/. variegata, in which the yellow colour is absent and replaced by white. Cf. I. vanegata var. 
lepida (p. 160). 
t/. FLAVESCENS 
•De Candolle in Red. Lil. t. 375 (1813). 
•Sweet, Brit. Flow. Gdn. Ser. II. Vol. I. t 56 (1830). 
Baker in J. L. S. xvi. p. 14S (1877) ex parte. 
Hdk. I rid. p. 35 (1892) ex parte. 
•Rchb. Ic. Crit. Vol. x. fig. 1242 (1831). 
■ similar plants are common in the neighbourhood of Riva in what appear .0 be wild conditions. I have been able to 
grow specimens side by side with the home-raised hybrids. ^ 
D. 
