512 



IRIS. 



TH ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



IRIS. 



I. ASIATICA (Asiatic Flag). Allied to 

 the German Iris, but the handsome flowers 

 are much larger, the lip especially being 

 very long and broad ; its colour is a very 

 fine pale purplish-blue, the standards a 

 little paler than the falls. A good border 

 kind. 



Iris asiatica. 



I. ATRO-PURPUREA. This Iris may be 

 considered as coming within the iberica 

 group, as the foliage is not unlike that 

 kind, and the stem, though always of some 

 length, never rises very high. The flower 

 is somewhat small, and for the most part 

 of deep purple colouring. 



I. AUREA (Golden Flag). A lovely tall 

 plant, with yellow flowers of great beauty, 

 hardy in the coldest soils. It does well 

 among shrubs or in borders of the best 

 perennials, and groups of it so placed are 

 very handsome. It is one of the kinds 

 that may be grouped with good effect 

 near water, though it thrives in moist 

 borders. Division and seed. Himalayas. 



I. BAKERIANA. This is one of the most 

 beautiful of the spring-flowering Irises. 

 The flowers remind one of those of the 

 netted Iris. The colouring varies, the 

 yellow streak on the fall, which is con- 

 spicuous in some of the forms, being almost 



entirely absent in others ; the size and 

 number of the violet spots and the breadth 

 of the rich violet edging, as well as the 

 size and brilliancy of their tints, vary in 

 individual flowers. Armenia. 



I. BARNUM^;. This Iris, a native of the 

 hills of Kurdistan, belongs to the iberica 

 group. The flower is smaller than that of 

 that Flag, and both falls and standards 

 are vinous red-purple marked with darker 

 veins, the standard being lighter in colour 

 than the fall, and its veins more conspicu- 

 ous. There is a yellow variety described 

 by Prof. Foster as "an exceedingly 

 charming plant," and fragrant, the odour 

 not being unlike the Lily-of-the-Valley. 



I. BIFLORA. A handsome Flag, 9 to 

 15 inches high, bearing large violet flowers 

 on stout stems. Similar to it are I. sub- 

 biflora and /. nudicaulis, which is one of 

 the best of the dwarf Flags, from 4 to 

 ip inches high ; its flowers large, of a rich 

 violet-blue, four to seven on a stem in 

 early summer. 



I. CRISTATA (Dwarf-crested Iris) is a 

 charming dwarf Flag, flowering in spring 

 and also in autumn, delicate blue and 



Iris cristata. 



richly marked. A fragile plant, 4 to 6 

 inches high, with broad leaves, it throws 

 out long slender rhizomes, wholly above 

 ground, and thrives in sandy earth, in 

 borders, or on the rock garden. 



I. FLORENTINA (Florentine Flag). Its 

 large delicate flowers are nearly 6 inches 

 deep, faintly tinged with blue, the falls 

 veined with yellow, and green, at the base, 



