ONCOCYCLUS IRISES 17 



them has come round in the autumn. It is not to be 

 denied that they will succeed after a fashion with this 

 mode of culture but the contention, on the other hand, 

 is that they never can do themselves justice when they 

 are treated in this way, and the reason for it is quite 

 obvious ; they take a long time to anchor themselves in 

 the ground, ancf beyond everything else, they hate to be 

 disturbed or tampered with in any way. It was an 

 oracular saying of Herr Max Leichtlin, which he uttered 

 a long time ago, but which should be as much respected 

 now as when it fell from his lips, " Oncocycli do not like 

 to be disturbed " ; and if that does happen, they lose for 

 a time fulness the magnificence which they would other- 

 wise have. I am sure that any one who has seen the 

 blossoms of these Irises which have come from plants 

 that have been long seated in one place, and others 

 which have been taken from such as have been regularly 

 moved, would say at once, if I grow these things at all 

 I never will be contented with a makeshift and half- 

 hearted sort of process, I will either find out how to do 

 the thing properly, or I will leave it all alone, and I will 

 turn my hand to something else. The following are Sir 

 Michael Foster's words, who knows more about this 

 matter than any one else, and who is treating it from 

 another point of view : " If these Irises are taken up and 

 are replanted somewhat early, the stimulus of the warm 

 autumnal soil goads them into active growth, so that they 

 try to make up for the time lost while they were on the 

 greenhouse shelf, and soon the cold of winter bruises 

 and spoils them ; or if they be planted late, the hand of 

 winter is upon them before they have had time to anchor 

 themselves by new roots, and frost thrusts them out of 

 the ground ; and even if this be prevented by careful 

 covering and the like, they are not so ready as plants 

 which have remained in the ground to avail themselves 

 of the forces of spring when these at last come." And 



