IRIS 199 
race ; and I only speak of them now loosely, and for the 
purpose of guidance as to the adornment of the garden. 
Well, as to the bulbous Irids, alata, histrio, bakeriana, 
histrioeides, orchioeides, taurica, persica, Heldreichi, reticu- 
lata and their kindred, hardly one of them is for me. For 
sharp, rich, sandy soil, for perfect drainage, for dry cold 
winters, for fierce, baking summers, all these are treasures 
of loveliness through the griping early days of January and 
February ; and those who revel in such conditions may 
also revel in the bulbous Irises of the Levant. Here it is 
impossible for me to supply drainage keen enough, a 
summer warm enough, a winter dry and cold enough. 
My conditions, in which Primulas and Gentians rejoice, is 
slow death to the bulbous Ivids; they barely endure the 
long, soaking dreariness of autumn, the wet, open mildness 
of winter; and then, with early spring, they send up, 
perhaps, one hesitating, frail flower. <A slug takes it as 
a hors @auvre, a mouse for dessert ; what is left—a flap- 
ping, torn relic—is washed threadbare with spring rains, 
and splashed with mud until its original design and 
colour can only be guessed. Next season, of course, the 
wretched bulb prefers death to another such unprofitable 
effort. One, only, has to be excepted from this dreary 
list. ris reticulata approves of me, and occasionally, for 
some mysterious reason, prospers most unreasonably. In 
one dank, shady border, there is a bulb that flowers obstin- 
ately from year to year, and neither dies nor increases. 
And, throughout the garden, I am liable to outbreaks of 
unsuspected Jris reticulata every season. Perhaps of all 
the bulbous species, too, reticulata is the loveliest, with 
its thin rush-like leaves and its three-pronged flower of 
intense violet, eyed with orange, and scented with the 
fierce deliciousness of the violet whose colour it imitates. 
Leichtlint is larger and paler, and the major form of 
reticulata is also well spoken of, but the type reticulata is 
