210 
The Xiphium Section 
I. narynetisis, O. Fedtschenko in Bull. Jard. Imp. Bot. Pet. v. p. 159 (1905). 
Distribution. This was found in Turkestan by A. Regel in 1880. 
Valley of the Naryn, 1881, Regel (SP). 
Description. 
Rootstock , a long-necked bulb of the usual Juno type. 
Leaves , glaucescent, narrow, but little waved or falcate, with a white edge and prominent setae. 
Stem, 1 — 2\ in. only, slender, bearing 1 — 2 flowers. 
Spathes, greenish, little inflated. 
Tube, slightly overtopping the spathes. 
Flowers, lilac. 
Falls. The blade is of a deep violet with a broad white margin and a white crest, which in its 
upper part is denticulate and in the lower splits up into hairlike threads. The haft is oblong, not 
winged. 
Standards, a little more than half as long as the falls, with a lanceolate pointed blade. 
Filaments , about equal in length to the yellow anthers. 
Observations. 
I. narynensis is not unlike /. linifolia in appearance but is easily distinguishable from it by the 
setae, which edge the white margins of the leaves, by the undivided stigma and by the deep purple 
colour of the central portion of the blade of the falls. Colour alone would, of course, be no real 
difference but the setose edges of the leaves and the formation of the stigma show that /. narynensis 
is quite distinct Until the seeds are known, it is impossible to assign it with certainty to any sub- 
division within the Juno Section. 
THE XIPHIUM SECTION 
The group of bulbous Irises of which the best known representative is /. xiphium, the Spanish 
Iris, comprises six species all natives of the Iberian Peninsula or of North-West Africa’. The most 
northern representative, I. xiphioides, is confined to the Pyrenees and the hills of North-Western 
Spain and is sharply distinguished from the rest of the group both by the form of the segments 
of the flower and by its requirements in cultivation. In its native home it grows in damp alpine 
pastures, where moisture is continually oozing through the soil and it is therefore most luxuriant in 
those gardens that possess a moist soil, rich in humus. It differs, too, from all the other members 
of the group by the fact that the tips of the leaves do not pierce the surface of the soil until 
after the New Year, while all the other species appear above the ground in autumn. 
The other members of this group all delight in a soil that becomes dry and warm in summer, 
so that their bulbs are adequately ripened. Indeed, they do not continue to flourish unless this 
ripening of the bulbs takes place. Unless therefore the soil and the climate naturally provide such 
a resting period, it becomes essential to lift the bulbs when the leaves turn yellow about the end 
of July or early in August and store them in sand or other dry material for about a month. Bulbs 
that have been lifted should not be left exposed to the sun and air longer than is necessary to dry 
the earth that remains clinging to them, or they will begin to wither and lose their plumpness. 
This frequent, or even annual, lifting of the bulbs has an additional advantage, for it tends to 
increase the stock of bulbs by allowing all the bulblets a chance to develop. The bulb illustrated 
on Plate XLI 1 I shows the way in which four or six bulblets are packed closely one above the 
other in equal numbers on either side of the main bulb. In the wild state, or when the bulbs 
remain undisturbed in the same position year after year, these lateral bulblets have to struggle for 
existence against the more vigorous central bulb and therefore often succumb from want of nourishment. 
In making up a bed for these Irises, sharp drainage is the one essential but the opposite 
extreme of giving the bulbs pure sand and no nourishment must also be avoided. Heavy soil should 
therefore be lightened and rendered porous and barren sand enriched by the liberal addition of humus 
in the form of well-decayed leaf soil or old manure. The addition of some lime or chalk is beneficial. 
The stock of these bulbs increases rapidly when the offsets are removed and planted out a few 
inches apart. They grow to flowering size in one or two years and form, of course, the only means 
of propagating any particular form or variety. Notes on the method of raising seedlings will be found 
in the chapter on raising Irises from seed, page 235. 
Speculation of some interest is involved in the question whether bulbous or rhizomatous Irises 
first made their appearance in the development of the genus. Whatever the truth may be, there is 
in some ways a striking resemblance between the flowers of /. xiphium and those of /. spuria. The 
form and poise of the segments is almost identical and I have even had instances of strong growing 
examples of I. xiphium, which produced an upright lateral branch, precisely like those of /. spuria. 
Moreover there occurs on the short funnel-shaped tube of each a curious nectarial exudation, which 
1 1 . xiphium is also found in France in the neighbourhood of Beziers and /. juncea in Sicily and apparently also near Genoa. 
