SISYRINCHIUM. 



large, are not big enough for the leafy plant, and are of dim greenish- 

 white inside, with a i dull brownish-red, repeating those of 

 S. Sa-rifraga in doubled size, and with the petals much more deeply 

 cloven . 



ophorum. 

 '■.ica. the Fire-pink, is most splendid, but by no means easy 

 to cope with perennially, and. like the others of the group, by no means 

 usually long for this world. It should have a very deep-soiled and 

 perfect ly-drained place on a sheltered opui slope, with a warm aspect. 

 The soil should be a rich light mixture of peat. loam, leaf -mould, and 

 sand., made spongy and loose, and diluted with chips ; into this the 

 plant will happily send its vast root., and the crowns will break into 

 tufts of long rather thin narrow spoon-shaped oval leaves. From 

 these will spring or flop the frail slender stems, in summer, branching 

 into sprays that carry here and there at rare intervals and in steady 

 succession enormous flat flowers of violent crimson-scarlet, rich and 

 velvety, with the oblong petals deeply cloven. 



3. Zawadskyi [Melandryum Zawadshyi) makes the richest promise, 

 with its beautiful basal rosettes of dark green lucent leaves, looking 

 like the clump of some Arthritic Primula, and no less easily to be 

 cultivated in any light soil, in sun or shade. But the upstanding 

 stems, of 4 or 5 inches, unfurl in late summer, one above the other, 

 three or four quite uninteresting greeny-white flowers sometimes a 

 little tinged with pink, in a style that blends 8. maritima and S. val- 

 ■■ unsatisfactory combination. 

 Sisyrinchium. — 'Hi ae >mall bids Lave beauty in their neat 

 clumps of Iridaceous or rush-like leaves, no less than in the persistent 

 profusion of their satiny bells or stars of blossom. The race belongs 

 mainly to the Xew World, and, though many of the species are small 

 and charming, some of them are large and ugly, in the way of 8. stria- 

 tum, which makes almost the growth of a stiff Bearded Iris, with 

 crowded spikes a foot high or more, of straw-yellow flowers of the feeb- 

 lest effect. 8. angv.iti folium (sometimes called 8. bermudianum) is 

 the best -known Blue-eyed Grass — a name that is really apt to its 

 lavish grassy tufts and clumps, with the little sword-blade leaves 



ng to erupt at their tips into an unending profusion of delicate 



blue stars. It is the type of a large American group, all in the same 



way of charm, of which tl - (S. gramineum), 8. mon- 



- F ru-dlii. and 8. aUaniicum. Yet this invader 



indant in the wild and woolly West — not of America only, but of 

 Ireland, running riot among the grass in damp cool places of Kerry 

 and Galway. Here it has long been known ; but of late years has 



