Title page |
|
Return to Table of
Contents |
| Title page |
|
Return to Table of
Contents |
[LECTURE PRESENTED 27 MAY, 1922]
....Monstrosities are found fairly
frequently in Irises. Several were cited in the classic treatises
on Teratology from Masters, Penzig, and Worsdell. Subsequently,
Miss Armitage, Bliss, Lynch and Mottet observed several other
instances among cultivated plants. (1)
They are found in all Iris sections, with the exception of the
Evansias and Gynandiris, and in the botanical species as well
as horticultural varieties. They are, however, more numerous in
these last, which, contrary to the opinion of Miss Armitage, supports
the conjecture that they may arise from hybridizing and culture.
....The inflorescence is normally in the form of a spike or a cluster. In 1902, in the fields of the firm of Vilmorin-Andrieux et Cie, Mottet observed some Iris germanica with branched inflorescences. These branches were either opposed, or opposite-decussate, which is to say that the plane of two opposed branches formed a right angle with the plane of the two branches located immediately above it.
....Miss Armitage directed our
attention to the tendency of the scarious bracts of the species
of the Iris pallida group to become partially green and described
an Iris xiphioides in which the first lateral bract was green
and furnished with a dark blue lateral appendage, the second and
third were entirely blue and veined like small sepals, and the
fourth was membranous, narrow, long, and slightly colored.
| Title page |
|
next page |
|
(1) An important collection of herbarium specimens of Iris monstrosities was exhibited at the first meeting of the Conference by the firm of Vilmorin-Andieux et Cie.