1 66 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



The leaves of the iris stand stiff and erect around the 

 flower-bearing stems : the guarding swords drawn around 

 the flag. In Germany the plant is the Wasser Schwertliliey 

 the water sword-lily. If we gather a bunch of Iris we 

 shall be well advised to see that it includes several buds, 

 no matter how immature, for, if we put our gatherings 

 into water, these buds continue to develop, and they presently 

 expand into flowers. The same thing may be noticed 

 with the buds of the dog-rose and the field-rose. With 

 either of these three plants, the pleasure of their possession 

 may be made much more lasting by gathering not merely 

 the open flowers that fade on the morrow, but by taking 

 steps to insure a pleasant succession of them. 



The flowers are of conspicuous beauty and quaintness 

 of form, being something rather outside what we may 

 perhaps, without disrespect to many beautiful flowers, 

 call the ordinary type of blossom, the saucer-like form. 

 These iris blossoms have their parts in threes : three large 

 pendant members of the perianth ; three inner members, 

 much smaller than these and erect ; three petal-like stigmas 

 alternating with this second series, and each arching over 

 its special one of the three stamens. The capsule, the 

 fruit that succeeds these, green in colour, and containing 

 numerous pale-brown seeds, conforms equally to this 

 numerical law, being three-celled, and if cut across the 

 centre would be found to be three-sided. If we start with 

 the idea of an equilateral triangle, and then substitute for 

 each angle a rounded form, we shall get very fairly close to 

 the form of the fruit when subjected to this cross-section. 

 When the seeds are mature this capsule opens from above 

 downwards into three valves, so that the seeds are revealed 



