212 
The Xiphium Section 
Benasque (Aragon), 1862, du Parquet (BM). 
Port de Venasque, 1858, Boissier et Reuter (E), 1910, Hort (HortD). 
Bagn&res de Luchon, , Andr£ (B). 
Cauterets (Hautes Pyr.), 1889, Neyraut (B). 
Hecho, 1858, Bubani (B). 
Diagnosis. 
/. xiphioides Xiphion* ; bulbils ovatus, tunicis membranaceis in fibras abeuntibus ; perigonii tubus 
paene obsoletus ; segmenta interiora suborbicularia ; germen latius quam in I. xiphio , seminibus globosis 
nec compressis. 
Description. 
Rootstock , a large ovate bulb with thin membranous, dark brown coats, splitting into fibres at the apex. 
Leaves , channelled, the outer surface being a glaucous green and the inner a silvery grey, tapering 
to a point, equal in length to the stem. 
Stem , 12 — 18 in. long, clothed in short, acuminate, reduced leaves, and producing only a terminal 
head of 2 — 3 flowers. 
Spathe valves, green, ventricose, 3 — 4 in. long, sharply keeled. 
Pedicel, 1 — 3 in. long, rounded, trigonal. 
Ovary, narrow, triangular, i£ — 1^ in. long. 
Tube, \ — £ in., funnel-shaped. 
Falls. The broad emarginate blade is separated by a marked constriction from the broadly 
winged haft. These wings are large and almost transparent and stand up on either side of the 
styles. In the wild state the flowers are almost always of a deep rich blue, set off with a con- 
spicuous golden patch on the fall. 
Standards. The blade is almost orbicular, but tapers at the base to a short wedge-shaped haft. 
The standards are much shorter than the falls. 
Styles, broad, widening in the upper part, very sharply keeled. 
Crests, triangular. 
Stigma, two-pointed. 
Filaments , white, stained and spotted with purple. 
Anthers, white, edged blue. 
Pollen, cream. 
Capsule, as much as 4 in. long by | — £ wide, tapering at either end. 
Seeds, dark red-brown, globose, wrinkled. 
Observations. 
Clusius relates in his History of Spanish Plants (1576) that this Iris had been brought to him 
from Bristol, whither he went and searched in vain for it. Subsequently he heard from Lobel that 
he had found it growing in gardens at Bristol and from this fact Clusius was no doubt right in 
drawing the inference that it had been brought to the port of Bristol by some of the many ships 
that traded thence to Spain and Portugal. With his usual accurate observation, Clusius distinguishes 
the plant at once from I. xiphium by noting that the ripe seeds rattle in the capsule, if the latter 
is shaken. (Semen maturum in siliquis, si moveantur, crepitat. Clusius, Hisp. p. 278.) It was owing 
to this early belief that the plant grew wild in the neighbourhood of Bristol that it became known 
as /. anglica. 
Gerard (Herball, p. 92, 1597) was obviously referring to this Iris when he wrote of the leaf 
of an /. bulbosa that “in the bottome of the hollownesse it tendeth to whitenesse,” for this precisely 
describes the silvery-white lining of the channelled leaves. 
The first mention of the name “English Iris” is probably in the Hortus Eystettensis (1613), 
Ordo iv, Fol. 7. i and 8. i, where white and violet forms of an Iris bulbosa anglicana are depicted. 
In 1720 no less than twenty garden varieties of this Iris are represented in Simula’s Flora 
exotica, preserved in the Natural History Department of the British Museum. 
Among all the varieties that have been raised, ranging in colour from the deep violet blue of 
the wild plant through pale violet and mauve to white and from white to pink and deep red, each 
with its yellow central line on the falls, it is significant that no yellow flowered form has ever 
appeared. This fact, together with the marked difference in the shape of the segments, in the capsule 
and seeds and in the whole growth of the plant shows that /. xiphioides is quite distinct from 
1 . xiphium, in spite of the fact that Linnaeus does not separate them but includes them both under 
his I. xiphium. See the Observations on the latter, p. 214. 
For the cultivation of the “English” Iris, see the introductory remarks on the Spanish Iris group. 
This Iris is very easily raised from seed, though the process is somewhat slow and takes four 
years at least. The seeds should be sown in drills half an inch or an inch deep on soil to which 
plenty of old leaf mould or well-decayed manure has been added. This addition tends to preserve 
in the soil that moisture without which this Iris will not flourish. The young plants will germinate 
in spring and may be left in the seed-beds until they reach flowering size in the course of time. 
‘ The name Xiphion is applied to all those Irises whose rootstock is a bulb without persistent roots in the resting state. 
