The Pogoniris Section | 7 | 
Spathe valves , lanceolate, the outer partly green and the inner largely scarious at flowering time, 
tinged with purple at the edge. 
Pedicel, none or very short. 
Ovary , much rounded trigonal with six shallow grooves. 
Tube, about an inch long, brownish-green. 
Falls, 3^ — 4 in. long by if in. broad, obovate with a broad wedge-shaped half. The blade is 
of a fine purple violet and the whitish half is veined with thick brown-purple veins. The beard is 
narrow, of bluish-white hairs tipped with yellow. 
Standards, 3^ — 4 in. long by 2 in. broad, broadly obovate with a short canaliculate haft. The 
colour is a fine purple- violet, slightly lighter than that of the falls. 
Styles, broad, keeled, pale violet, about if long. 
Crests, deltoid, with a coarsely serrated outer edge. 
Stigma, entire, broad. 
Filaments, white tinged with violet. 
Anthers, whitish, equal in length to the filaments. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, oblong, rounded trigonal. 
Seeds, large, elongated pyriform, brown, wrinkled. 
Observations. 
This Iris is probably nothing more than a form of I. germanica but as we have no means of 
knowing whether it is a wild or a garden form, it seems best to leave it as a subspecies. Seeds 
are rarely produced in England, and I have not yet had time to raise plants from the few that 
the hot summer of 1911 enabled me to obtain. 
As a garden plant it is perhaps the smallest of the true germanicae and some care is needed 
to distinguish it from another variety known as nepalensis, atropurpurea or Purple King (see p. 163). 
The chief differences are the slightly dwarfer habit of /. Kochii and the fact that the veining on 
the falls is scarcely obvious beyond the end of the style branches, while in the var. nepalensis the 
whitish ground is clearly seen. 
In dealing with herbarium material, it will be found that the names of /. Kochii and of 
/. benacensis are often wrongly attributed to specimens of I. Cengialti, which ought easily to be 
distinguished at once from either by its small and entirely scarious spathes (see p. 168). 
The cultivation of I. Kochii presents no difficulty in a well-drained soil. 
1 1 . LURID A 
Soland in Crit. Hort. Kew, ed. I. vol. I. p. 68 (1789) non Spach. 
Willd. Spec. Plant, ed. iv. p. 229 (1797). 
•Bot. Mag. t 986 (1807). 
•Red. Lil. t. 318 (1812). 
[•Bot. Mag. t. 669 (1803) admittedly represents a different plant, which came from a nursery in 
Kensington.] 
Synonym. 
/. Rcdoutcana, Spach, Hist. Wg. Phan. XIII. p. 56 (1846). 
Distribution. Unknown. 
Descriptioji. 
Rootstock, a rhizome, somewhat more slender than that of /. germanica. 
Leaves, ensiform, rather narrow, about 6—8 in. long at flowering time but growing eventually to 
a foot in height. 
Stem, about 18 in., bearing four bract-like leaves and a terminal head of two flowers and some- 
times one lateral flower. 
Spathe valves, green flushed with purple in the lower half and scarious in the upper part, not 
keeled, 2 in. long. 
Pedicel, very short, only £ in. 
Ovary, cylindrical or very obscurely trigonal, with thick walls. 
Tube, about 1 in., yellow-green, trigonal. 
Falls, long and narrow, spathulate, with a reddish-maroon blade, the haft bearing veins of the 
same colour on a yellow ground. The beard consists of orange hairs and is very prominent. 
3 in. by 1 in. . 
Standards, oval, unguiculate, emarginate, connivent, brownish-purple, concolor, the haft being 
yellowish with brown-purple mottlings ; slightly shorter than the falls. 2 £ in. by i£ in. 
Styles, yellow with a purple keel. 
Crests, small, darker than the styles, brownish-purple, subquadrate with jagged edges. 
Stigma, large, oblong, entire. 
22—2 
