ONCOCYCLUS IRISES 15 



dark brown spot about the throat, its orbicular stan- 

 dards which are of a pale grey colour most delicately 

 veined with red-brown, and I thought I had never 

 before seen anything to come up to this, it distanced 

 everything else whatever it may have been : at last the 

 rb /caX&v had been found. 



I left the garden at once there was room for nothing 

 else in my mind at the same time and I fetched my wife 

 from the hotel in hot haste, and before she had been able 

 to breakfast, lest any accident or unlooked-for occurrence 

 should deprive her of a sight which she might never see 

 again. From that time to this, Iris Lorteti has reigned 

 supreme in my affections though it has been closely run 

 by two or three near relatives of its own upon occasion 

 Iris iberica and some others have gone far to equal it. 



But now came the real difficulty of the affair for I had 

 often tried to grow these Irises before, and I have had 

 many and many a disappointment to deplore ; these On- 

 cocyclus Irises made such a very deep impression on my 

 mind, that I almost registered a vow that I would never 

 leave them alone while the smallest chance remained to 

 me of doing them well. It should be said here that I 

 possess and work in a garden which has been appropri- 

 ately called a veritable sun-trap, and I therefore judged 

 that I had as good a chance of prospering with these 

 beautiful flowers as anybody could have in the British 

 Isles. I put therefore first and foremost as a desideratum 

 in the way of cultivation which must be taken into 

 account, a bright sunny exposure. 



I would advise no one to waste time or money on 

 Oncocyclus Irises who lives in a low-lying or wettish 

 locality I think they would damp off very soon, and 

 any notion on their part of posing as aquatics is very far 

 distant. But, given the ordinary amount of sunshine 

 which is to be met with in the Southern and Midland 

 counties of England, and I should say that the prospect 



