This volume provides the first comprehensive, botanically detailed and up-to-date survey of this beautiful group of plants since publication of The Genus Iris by W.R. Dykes early this century. Following the pattern of the original Dykes monograph, botanical details, cultivation suggestions and general comments are supplied, and the work is generously illustrated with accurate line drawings, colour pictures of unusual species and distribution maps. This new survey includes all of the species that have been described so far this century and takes into account the many changes in classification that have taken place in the group.

Information currently scattered in the literature is brought together in one volume to provide an authoritative reference for professional botanists and growers, and a mine of useful information for amateur gardeners and iris enthusiasts.