* UllllimillMHIIIHIIIIHIMIIIIIIIIIMIII 
| FOR BOTH AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL 
| GROWERS OF THE GLADIOLUS, DAHLIA, IRIS, ETC. 
Entered as second-class matter March 31, 1914, at post office at 
| Calcium, N.Y., under act of March 3, 1879. 
I PUBLISHED MONTHLY ON THE FIRST OF THE j 
I MONTH BY MADISON COOPER, CALCIUM, N. Y. j 
Subscription price: Three years, $2.50; One year. $1.00. 
Origin 
[ [fritter, expressly fer Thr Flewer Grower ] 
of Tall Bearded Irises. 
BY WALTER STAGER, 'Illinois.) 
T HE NAME “German 
Irises ” has been given to 
a group of species of the 
bearded Irises, and it came 
about in this way : 
Linnaeus, the Swedish nat- 
uralist, regarded as the father 
of modern botany, in consider- 
ing the subject of botanical 
nomenclature settled upon the 
plan of giving each known plant 
two names: a genus-name con- 
sisting of a single word, and a 
species name consisting of a 
single word expressing some 
obvious character of the species. 
In 1753 he i=sued his Species 
Plantarum, and in it, for one 
form of the genus Iris, he 
adopted the name “Iris Ger- 
manica”- founding the species 
of that name — with the remark 
that it is an inhabitant of Ger- 
many. The descriptive text is: 
“ Iris corrolisbarbatis, caule folius 
longiore multifloro.”* In this spe- 
cies the beard is confined to the 
midrib of the falls. In lime this 
bearded Iris came to be regarded 
as the type of a group of species 
of tall, bearded Irises— tall as 
compared with the pumilae and 
other dwarf species — in which 
the beard is confined to the mid- 
rib, and so the name “ German,” 
derived from the name of the 
species named “germanica,” was 
applied to the group. 
“German,” as applied to the 
so called group of Irises, is a 
misnomer. No species included 
in the group has ever been 
known to be native to Germany 
—'not even any of the varieties 
of the species botanically called 
“germanica.” 
Of late, especially in the 
United States, there has been a 
growing inclination to substi- 
* Iris with bearded little crown, and with 
many-flowered stem longer than the leaves. 
IRIS— ZUA. 
One of the distinctive prize winners at the last show of the North- 
western Peony and Iris Society. It is described as very early, of a 
pure lavender color, and with falls and standards like heavy 
frosted crepe. It is very fragrant, and of rather dwarf habit, and 
it is inclined to bioom from the ground up. 
tute some other name for this 
group. “Germanica” will prob- 
ably be retained as the name of 
the species so named by Lin- 
naeus, for strictly botanical 
names are seldom changed — 
certainly not for merely senti- 
mental reasons. For the re- 
tention of “German,” however, 
as applied to the group, there 
seems to be less reason, espe- 
cially in view of the number of 
species included in the group, 
and the names being inaccurate 
and misleading as to each of 
them. 
As the beard of Iris germanica 
is the principal characteristic 
that causes this species to be re- 
garded as the type of tall 
bearded species similarly 
bearded, “Tall Bearded Irises” 
seems to be an appropriate sub- 
stitute for “ German Irises,” 
especially as it conforms to Lin- 
naeus’ plan of naming plants — 
adopting a name expressing an 
obvious characteristic. 
There is a specimen in Lin- 
naeus’ herbarium, which is now 
in the possession of the Linnaean 
Society, in London, labelled 
“ Iris Germanica,” but neither 
it— the label having been writ- 
ten by Linneaus’ son — nor his 
description of “ Iris Germanica,” 
in his Species Plantarum, is 
sufficient to enable one to iden- 
tify anyone of the varieties now 
generally listed, by plantsmen, 
in the division “ Iris Germanica,” 
as the type of the species founded 
by Linnaeus.* 
The common blue form is 
probably the one that has been 
taken, by modern monograph- 
ers, as the type of the ger- 
manica division. 
♦This information received through 
courtesy of Dr. L. H. Bailey, Professor at 
Cornell University. 
