Difference: SpecLeichtlini (r5 vs. r4)

Hooker described in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, Tab. 7861. Oct 1902 as;
IRIS Leichtlini. Native of Bokhara . Nat. Ord. Irideas. — Tribe Morae. Genus Iris, Linn.; {Benth. & Hook. f. Gen. Plant. ro\. iii. p. 686).
Iris (Regelia) Leichtlini; rhizomate valido repente, caule 1-1^ poll, alto valido monocephalo basi folioao, foliis 1-lJ ped. longis ad 3 poll. latia ensiformibas obtusis sat. firmis pallida viridibug plus minusve glaucescentibua marginibus hyalinis, spathaa valvis 2-3 poll, longis oblongo-lanceolatis herbaceis apicibus scariosis 2-3-flori8, floribus breviter pedicellatis, perianthii tubo ovario loagiore ad 1^ poll, longo tereti a basi ad apicem seasim ampliato, litnbi segmentis subsequalibus cuneato-obovatis apice rotundatis undnlatis margiaibua crispatis a basi ad medium flavo-barbatis medio violaceis venis saturatioribus pictis, lateribus late brunueis, exterioribus a medio recurvis, interioribus erectis, styli ramis oblongis perianthii I obis dimidio brevioribua cristis brunneia apice bifidis, antheria valde elongatis anguste liaearibus filamentis pluries longioribus.

I. Leichtlini, Begel in Act. Sort. Petropol. vol. viii. (1884) p. 680 ; Descr. vol. ix. p. 40. Baker, Handh. of Iridese, p. 20.

I. vaga, Fast, ex Begel, Gartenfl. p. 201, 672, 1. 1244, f. 7.
Iris Leichtlini is very closely allied to I. Eulefeldi, Kegel (tab. 6902), a species referred to by Baker as a variety of I. scariosa Willd. ('*Handb. of Irideae," p. 32), which differs notably in the plane margins of the perianth- segments and bipartite crests of the style-arms. I. Korollkovi, Kegel, (tab. nostr. 7025), is another nearly allied plant, but it differs from I. Leichtlini by the same characters of perianth-segments and style-arms as does I. Eulefeldi. All three are natives of Russian Turkestan, and are variable in colour, but I. Leichtlini is the most beautifully variegated of the three, and is the only one of them (as far as yet figured) with brown and violet periauth- segments.
Central Asia is probably the head-quarters of the genus Iris, about thirty species are enumerated by Baker as inhabiting this region, whence, and especially from Tibet and the regions bordering China, many novelties may be expected; about forty species are European, sixteen Himalayan. Plants of L Leichtlini were purchased for the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1893, from Messrs. Herb and Wulle, of Naples, which flowered in an open border in May. It was introduced into cultivation by Dr. Regel, of the Imperial Botanic Gardens of St. Petersburgh, who received it from Bokhara, where it was found by Korolkov.
Descr. — Whole plant twelve to eighteen inches high. Rootstock stout, creeping. Stem leafy at the base, simple, bearing one head of two to three flowers. Leaves about as long as the stem, half an inch broad, ensiform, obtuse, pale green, more or less glaucous. Valves of spathe two to three inches long, herbaceous, with scarious tips. Flowers very shortly pedicelled. Perianth-tube an inch and a half long, terete, gradually dilated from base to tip ; segments of limb sub-equal, three inches long, cuneate-obovate, all with a narrow beard of yellow hairs from the claw to about the middle ; margins undulate and crisped, tips rounded, violet-blue in the middle, with broadly, copper-coloured margins and darker veins, outer segments recurved from the middle, inner erect. Anthers very long and slender. Style-arms half as long as the perianth- segments, erect, ovate, tip bifid.— J. D. H.
October 1st, 1902.