ONCOCYCLUS IRISES 25 



to be conclusive enough, and I determined at once to 

 put it all to the test and to be guided entirely by the 

 results that might follow, and this is just what has 

 happened. It seemed to me that bone meal would be as 

 good a food as any which I could get for my plants, 

 and if they like lime at all they would respond to its use. 

 I accordingly s'ent for a large sack of bone meal to 

 Messrs Clay of Stratford, near London, and I distributed 

 TI2 Ibs. of it between four large frames, giving to each 

 one 28 Ibs. or thereabouts. These frames I should say 

 are 12 feet long, 3 or gj feet wide and have a depth of 

 about ij feet. The bone meal was thoroughly mixed 

 and incorporated with the loam which was put into the 

 frames, and the Irises were planted in September last 

 towards the end of the month, and now what followed 

 during last winter and spring ? I can only say there 

 have been no sudden failures and consequent disappear- 

 ances as so often has been the case before. I have 

 certainly not lost more than one Iris to my knowledge, 

 or at the outside two, out of several hundred plants 

 which I am growing, and this being the case it is more 

 than possible that this one or two may have been ill 

 before they came into my hands, and not only so, the 

 whole lot looks as if it were in the rudest health and 

 doing exceptionally well. The colour of the foliage is 

 good and I know not of a single drawback which should 

 be mentioned here, on the contrary L may say that my 

 garden was visited last spring by several persons who 

 had an exceptional knowledge of these things, and they 

 all declared themselves quite pleased with what they 

 saw. 



It is only right that I should mention here, which I 

 am quite pleased to do, that curiously enough this 

 matter has been taken up very seriously on the Continent, 

 simultaneously with our efforts regarding it, but quite 

 independently of them. M. Van Tubergen, junior, was 



