The Juno Section 
195 
+ /. PALESTINE 
Boiss. FI. Orient. V. 122 (1884). 
Foster, Bulb. Ir. 39, 79 (1892). 
Synonyms. 
Xiphion palaestinum, Baker in Journ. of Bot IX. (1871) 108. 
Juno palaestina, Klatt in BZ. XXX. (1872), 498. 
var. coerulea Post, FI. Syr. Pal. 768 (1896). 
Distribution. Syria, usually not far from the coast. 
Skanderoun, on the slopes of Lebanon not far from Saida, 1854, Gaillardot (K) (B) (V). 
Saida, 1854, Blanche (K). 
Jaffa, 1851, De Lessert (B). 
Gaza, 1884, Hart (K). 
Plain of Sharon, 1863, Osborn (K). 
1872, Hayne (K). 
Aebk to El Machin, 1890, Post (K). 
Hebron, 1863, Lowne (K). 
Diagnosis. 
I. palestina Juno ; I. alatae valde similis sed minor ; segmenta exteriora tuberculis apice globosis 
instructa. 
Description. 
Rootstock , a compact ovoid bulb with persistent fleshy roots and brown or purplish outer coats. 
Leaves, 5 — 8 in number, channelled, 4 — 6 in. long, tapering to a point, the upper surface glossy and 
the under glaucescent. 
Stem, very short, entirely hidden by the leaves, bearing 1 — 3 flowers. 
Spathe valves, 3 in. long, pale whitish green, loose but not inflated. 
Pedicel, very short at first but eventually thrusting the ripe capsule to the surface of the ground. 
Ovary, cylindrical, practically sessile in the spathe, £ in. long. 
Tube, 2 — 3 in. long, slender. 
Falls, 2 — 3 in. long, less than an inch broad ; the wedge-shaped haft bears conspicuous opaque wings, 
as in I. alata, the blade being oblong, with a blunt emarginate point. Along the haft runs a low yellowish 
ridge with intermittent black dots, which becomes orange on the blade. The ground colour is either 
yellow, green or blue, marked with a few veins of a deeper shade. 
Standards, £ — £ in. long, poised horizontally, the haft so deeply channelled as to be almost tubular; 
the blade is small, ovate, emarginate and usually more or less coarsely toothed. 
Styles, narrow, of the same colour as the falls, the edges irregularly toothed. 
Crests, large, overlapping, sub-quadrate, with coarsely serrated edges. 
Stigma, entire, conspicuous. 
Filaments, slightly longer than the anthers, purplish white without the hairlike processes present 
on those of alata. 
Anthers, short, sometimes edged with purple or blue. 
Pollen, cream-coloured, spherical, covered with minute spines. 
Capsule, oblong, trigonous. 
Seeds, small, brown, oval. 
Observations. 
This Iris may be looked upon as the eastern form of /. alata. The difference between the two 
plants is really very slight except in so far as /. palestina is usually decidedly smaller than /. alata. 
The colour is more variable in the former, but Post found in Syria a variety that he called coerulea 
and colour alone forms no real specific difference. Foster in Bulbous Irises, pp. 79 and 83, makes a 
conspicuous difference in the shape of the standards but the examination of a number of specimens 
shows that this is variable. In both cases the standard consists of a canaliculate haft and an ovate 
blade. The edge of the latter is always somewhat irregularly indented and these indentations easily 
give to so small a surface as the blade of the standard of /. palestina the appearance of being trilobed, 
whereas in /. alata the indentations appear insignificant along the edge of the larger surface. 
Minute differences may however be found. In /. alata the stigma is distinctly bilobed but in 
palestina entire, the edge being in both cases finely crenate. Another point of difference can be 
discovered by the microscopic examination of the falls. In both cases the central ridge of orange or 
yellow, spotted with black, is covered with minute hairs or tubercles, scattered among which are a 
number of larger processes. The tips of these are in alata merely slightly thickened, whereas in pales- 
tina the extremities are almost globular. 
Foster's statement (ibid. p. 79) that short black hairs or tubercles arise from each of the black 
spots along the central ridge is a somewhat misleading account of the actual structure, for the long 
hairs or tubercles occur at irregular intervals both on and alongside the yellow ridge and are of the 
25—2 
