As Iris biliotti Foster in The Gardeners' Chronicle 61: 738. 4 June 1887; Foster gives the following description and comments: Rhizome like that of germanica. Leaves of a darker green, and more distinctly striated and more rigid than those of I. germanica, but like them largely persistent through the winter, narrowed somewhat suddenly to a point at the apex, about 21 inches long, and 1 ¾ inch broad at the upper part, and 7/8 inch below, the broader part suddenly narrowing at the level, where, in an Iris leaf, the part answering to the lamina joins the part representing the petiole. *Inflorescence* that of I. germanica. Scape about 2 ½ -3 feet, overtopping the leaves. Spathe-valves 3 inches by 5/8 inch, narrow, acuminate, not keeled, persistent, scarious, when the flower is expanded at the very apex only, and sometimes hardly that, widely divergent, so as to expose the whole of the tube and much of the ovary. Fall 3 ½ inches by 1 ½ inch at broadest, spathulate-cuneate; upper surface, claw white ground, with thick, bold, very dark purple-brown veins; lamina fine reddish-purple, with numerous dark, almost black veins, so thin as to be hardly visible at a distance; beard white, tipped with yellow, hairs not numerous, but stout and clavate; under-surface of the claw a bright green, in the median green, marked with brown dots, becoming a dull greenish, opaque-white on the lamina, the ground color of which shines through. Standard , 3 ½ by 2 inches, erect, connivent, the short (1 ½ inch) caniculate claw expanding into the large oval lamina; claw greenish on the outer surface, on the inner surface creamy white, marked with very delicate blue veins. The attachments of both falls and standards to the tube bear conspicuous lateral buttress-like expansions. Style obovate, 1 ½ inch by 5/8 inch, exclusive of crests, nearly white, except for a purplish flush on under surface beneath stigma, and on upper surface at the base of the crests; crests triangular, 5/8 by 3/8 inch, pointed, reflexed, divergent, reddish-purple, with blue veins; stigma semilunar. The style is raised high above the beard of the fall. Anthers rather longer than filaments; pollen white, large-grained abundant. Tube 7/8 inch long, green, with purple stripes descending from the basses of standards, hollow for more than half its length. Ovary 1 inch by 3/8 inch, supported by a short (1/3 inch) pedicel, bright green, rounded, triangular in section, but bearing six grooves, the three lateral being deepest. Ripe capsule (2 ½ inches by 1 ¼ inch) ellipsoidal, with six deep grooves dehiscing at summit; seed an elongated oval, having a light brown skin, smooth when first shed."I owe this new handsome and delightfully fragrant Iris to the great kindness of Alfred Biliotti, Esq., formerly Consul at Trebizond, now at Crete, and I venture to give myself the pleasure of naming it after him. The roots were collected south of Trebizond, near Kalahissar, in the province of Siwas."By its inflorescence it is obviously closely allied to I. germanica, and dried specimens may, perhaps, have passed as that species. But the large conspicuous, persistent, green, widely divergent spathe-valves (which in I. germanica are largely scarious at flowering time, often deeply flushed with purple, and tightly clasping the tube), and the deeply grooved ellipsoidal ovary (which in I. germanica is more or less distinctly trigonal, and never deeply grooved), to say nothing of the form and texture of the leaf and the color of the flower (I do not lay stress on the exact shape of the segments, since these vary much within the true limits of the species I. germanica), seem to me fully to justify my giving it specific rank."It flowers rather later than I. germanica, and is perfectly hardy, requiring the same treatment as I. germanica." |