182 The Pogoniris Section 
A characteristic feature of the plant is the abrupt termination of the veining on the falls which 
ends at a straight line drawn across at the end of the beard. For other points of difference between 
/. Alberti and I. imbricata see the Observations on the latter (p. 180). 
This same venation is present in a plant which came from Shelford but whose history is unknown. 
The colour is a pearly grey with the characteristic dark veins, and this Iris must clearly be a variety 
or hybrid of I. Alberti. It is distinguished also by its habit of flowering more than once in the 
year at irregular intervals. 
VII. The Indian Pogoniris Group. 
The bearded species of Iris from Northern India and Afghanistan form a puzzling group. 
Several of them, for instance, I. kashmiriana and its rare lavender-purple form, are difficult to 
cultivate in England and it is, moreover, impossible to feel sure that any are really wild plants 
and not escapes from formerly cultivated areas. These Irises, and especially the white-flowered 
varieties, are very commonly planted on graves — a custom which provides endless opportunities for 
the escape of the plants into semi-wild conditions. 
Moreover, plants that I have received in recent years from Srinagar in Kashmir and Khatmandu 
in Nepal have proved to be forms of I. germaniea *, identical in the first case with that which Foster 
named var. Kharput after the town in Asia Minor from which it was sent to him, and in the 
second with the variety atroflurpurca, as it is commonly grown in gardens in England and in 
a semi-cultivated condition in the South of France. 
No explanation of this very wide distribution has been given, but I am told by an eminent 
Anglo-Indian botanist that there are in Kashmir several plants which seem to have been introduced 
there from Western Asia through the passes, which were for so many centuries practically the only 
route to India from the West. 
With regard to the actual nomenclature, I have hesitated to adopt the name I. deflexa Knowles 
and Westcott because in the first place that plant is only vaguely said in the original description 1 * * 
to have been introduced from the East, while in the second I am unable to identify the figure of 
the plant given by its authors with either of the plants that are known to grow in India. It is 
true that the flower is not unlike that of Kharput, but this identification is rendered uncertain by 
the statement that I. deflexa needed greenhouse culture to ensure successful flowering, whereas Kharput 
is easy to cultivate and flowers readily. 
Another problem is presented by the specimens in Griffith’s herbarium, nos. 5904 and 5915, 
which Baker described as /. Griflithii. These are remarkable for their very long perianth tube, 
which makes it inadvisable to identify them with any other species, and yet it is remarkable that 
this species should have remained otherwise entirely unknown. 
Wallich's I. nepalensis *, of which specimens are preserved in his herbarium now at the Linnaean 
Society, was almost certainly an I. gcrtnanica (cf. p. 163), although there is perhaps scarcely enough 
evidence to enable us to identify it with absolute certainty with the plant which has been already 
mentioned as common in Khatmandu, because an early drawing from an Indian source in the Kew 
Collection represents an Iris with flowers of a much paler colour. 
The Indian species of Pogoniris may be separated as follows 4 : — 
A. Probably not indigenous ; spathes scarious in the upper half. 
1. Flowers large and flimsy, of a reddish-purple with standards of a much I. gennanica var. Kharput 
lighter shade than the falls ; the young leaves slightly but distinctly (see p. 163). 
edged with purple. 
2. Flowers of a uniform deep red-purple, the standards being almost, if not I. germanica var. nepalensis 
quite as dark as the falls. (see p. 163). 
B. Probably indigenous ; spathes green or at least only scarious at the extreme edge and tip. 
1. Stem branched. I. kashmiriana (p. 182). 
2. Stem unbranched. I. Griflithii (p. 184). 
1 1 . KASHMIRIANA 
Baker in Gard. Chron. 1877, II. p. 744. 
Hdk. Irid. p. 38 (1892). 
Synonyms. 
I. Bartoni, Foster in Gard. Chron. 1883, I. p. 275. 
•Baker in Bot. Mag. t 6869 (1886). 
1 Cf. also such specimens as those obtained by Duthie’s collector in 1901 from Nagbal, no. 25787 (K) (E), Liddar Valley, 
no. 25970 (K), and Naidkahi, no. 25792 (K). 
* Knowles and Westcott, The Floral Cabinet, 11. p. 19, t. 51 (1838). • Cat. no. 5050. 
4 The list here given includes those plants which are common in Northern India, but, as has been already explained, it is 
at least doubtful whether several of them are not importations from the West. 
