The Pogoniris Section 
179 
Diagnosis. 
I. scariosa Pogoniris; rhizoma ut in I. pumila\ folia glauca; caulis simplex; spathae angustae, 
acuminatae, 2-pollicares, membranaceae, apice scariosae ; tubus plus quam pollicaris, fuscus. 
Description taken from Foster’s notes of specimens received in 1887, and collected by Bateson near Lake 
Balkhash. 
Rootstock , a compact, short creeping, somewhat slender rhizome. 
Leaves , 6 — 12 in. long at flowering time, about ^ — | in. broad, erect or but slightly falcate, pale 
green, very glaucous, 5 — 6 to a tuft. 
Stem, about 2 — 6 in. long or slightly more, with two small clasping leaves at the base, above which 
it is bare, producing two flowers (but sometimes only one). 
Spathe valves , 2 — 2^ in. narrow, pointed, clasping the tube, pale green, but transparent and membranous 
below, becoming scarious above, sharply keeled. 
Pedicel, none, or very short. 
Ovary, f in. long, sharply trigonal, green. 
Tube, 1 — in. long, purplish-brown. 
Falls, obovate cuneate, the haft being marked with thick purple veins on a white ground with 
some colour diffused from the veins. The blade is of a uniform and peculiar red-purple colour with a 
few darker veins, becoming more prominent near the end of the beard, which is yellow on the haft 
and then white tipped with purple on the much reflexed blade, i£x£in. 
Standards, obovate unguiculate, of a uniform red-purple, rather darker on the haft, i^x^in. 
Styles, a lighter tint of the same colour. 
Crests, small, lanceolate deltoid. 
Stigma, entire, semicircular in outline. 
Filaments, about equal in length to the anthers. 
Anthers, 
Pollen, white. 
Capsule, trigonal, pointed. 
Seeds, pear-shaped, brown, wrinkled, without any conspicuous aril. 
Observations. 
Willdenow's description* certainly does not agree with the plant that Pallas identified as /. biflora 
in the British Museum. This is evidently an example of I. aphylla , of which Pallas said (Iter. 1. 
p. 1 71) that he had never found specimens to the east of the Volga. 
Willdenow’s description does, however, describe the plant that is found beyond the Volga and which 
is distinguished by its long scarious spathes and extremely glaucous leaves. This last character was 
noticed by Bunge when he gave the plant the name of I. glaucescetis and it is also characteristic of 
the more robust variety named by Regel I. Eulefeldn. 
After a careful comparison of Foster’s notes on specimens of I. scariosa, which came to him from 
the hills to the north of Lake Balkhash and on others of /. Eulefeldii , which he obtained from Regel, 
I have been unable to find any real point of difference between them except size. Moreover the points 
of resemblance are so many and so striking that it seems best to follow Maximowicz’s arrangement of 
/. Eulefeldii as a robust variety of I. scariosa. The features in which they agree, besides the long, 
transparent and scarious spathes and the extremely glaucous leaves, are the brown-purple colour of the 
tube contrasting with the green ovary, the peculiar brown-veined purple flowers and the beard of long 
white hairs becoming on the blade purple at the upper end and on the haft bright yellow. 
There is no record of the requirements of the plant in cultivation but the fact that, although Foster 
at one time cultivated both the type and the variety, neither seems to have remained long in our 
gardens, points perhaps to some difficulty in satisfying their needs. The plants that I have in cultivation 
grow slowly and are noticeable for their very glaucous leaves. 
t ♦ /. IMBRICATA 
(Fig. 23) 
•Lindl. Bot Reg. xxxi. t 35 (1845). 
Synonyms. 
I. sulphured, C. Koch ex K. Koch, Linnaea XXI. p. 637 (1848). 
*/. flavescens, Sweet in Ornament. FI. Gdn. t. 252 (1854). (The confusion between I. fiavescens DC. and 
I. imbricata is very frequent.) 
I. Talischii, Foster ex Sprenger in Bull. Soc. Tosc, Ort 1901, p. 328. 
•/. obtusifolia, Baker in Bot Mag. t. 7701 (1900). 
Lynch, Bk. of Iris, p. 134 ( I 9°4)- 
1 Spathis terminalibus diphyllis bifloris scanosis maximis. 
23—2 
