44 THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



too, but, like the Lily, it has come to us in greater novelty and beauty 

 of recent years, and as districts in Central Asia and Asia Minor 



are opened to collectors, we must have our Iris 

 Iris. gardens too. And what so fair as an Iris garden ? 



They are the Orchids of the north, many of them 

 as hardy as reeds, and with more richness of colour than Orchids. 

 The old Irises of our gardens are usually of the Germanica class ; 

 there is much variety among these groups, and they are very hardy 

 and precious, and excellent for the adornment of gardens and even 

 walls and thatched roofs, as we see in France, the Iris of this great 

 group having a valuable power of thriving on such surfaces as well 

 as on good soil. 



There is a group of waterside and water-loving Iris, much less seen 

 in our gardens than the above, and some of them not yet come to us, 

 but of great value. They are allied to the common yellow Iris of our 

 watercourses, but are taller and richer in colour, the golden Iris 

 (aurea), Monnieri, and ochroleuca being the best known so far, and 

 very free, hardy, and beautiful plants they are, thriving, too, almost 

 anywhere, but best in rich, moist soil.- And we have the distinct gain 

 of the splendid Japanese Iris, in its many strange forms, the Japanese 

 surpassing all waterside Irises in its wide range of colour, though 

 most beautiful perhaps in its simple forms, white and purple. This 

 plant, though its beauty suggests that of the tropics, will grow side 

 by side with our great water dock by any lake-side or even in a 

 clay ditch, where only the coarsest weeds live. The Siberian Iris 

 and the forms near it are very graceful beside streams or ponds, 

 either in open or copsy places, and far more graceful and charm- 

 ing in such positions than in set borders. All these water-loving 

 Irises will do in the wild garden in bold groups when we can spare 

 them. 



Then there are the brilliant purple and gold Iris reticulata and its 

 allies, little bulbous Irises, for the spring garden, early and charming 

 things, many beautiful ; Irises that flower in winter and early spring, 

 like the Algerian Iris ; others happy in Britain on warm soils and 

 warm corners, and some for the rock garden, like the crested Iris ; and 

 the many pretty forms of Iris pumila, of some of which edgings were 

 made in old gardens. The foliage of the evergreen Iris is so graceful 

 and usually so nice in colour that artistic use may be made of it in 

 that way. The most novel of all the groups of Iris, however, are the 

 Cushion Irises, which promise much beauty, but are as yet too little 

 known for us to see how far that beauty may be preserved in our 

 gardens. The old Iris Susiana has been known for many years, and 

 some of its allies, like I. Lorteti and the Wolf Iris, seem more hardy 

 and not less beautiful. 



