THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN. 



ISATIS. 



519 



cultivated seedlings seem to be derived 

 from the typical Spanish plant ; the yellow 

 hues may be traced to the Portuguese 

 variety, sometimes known as /. lusitanica. 

 The Spanish Iris must not be water- 

 logged in autumn and winter, preferring 

 a loose, friable, sandy soil, which, however, 

 should not be too poor, for it repays feed- 

 ing with thoroughly rotten leaf- mould or 

 manure. Sun it must have, but as its 

 slender stalks suffer from winds, it should 

 have shelter without shade. The golden 

 rule of not meddling over-much applies 

 distinctly to the Spanish Iris, as the new 

 roots begin to shoot out almost before 

 the old stalk has withered, and the bulb 



They are vigorous and multiply readily, 

 and well suited to the English climate. 



THE IRIS : ITS PLACE IN THE 

 FLOWER GARDEN. The Iris family, 

 comprising as it does a vast number of 

 plants which can hardly be done justice 

 to in any one garden, there arises, 

 apart from the wishes of the owner, 

 the question of the value of the family 

 in the garden. The difficulty in the 

 w ay of growing various wild species 

 from climates quite unlike our own 

 the shortness of the season of bloom 

 makes one limit the number of species 



must not be kept out of the ground. 

 Plant, then, the Spanish Iris in clumps on 

 some rich, loose, friable plot, where their 

 bright colour may be shown to advantage, 

 and let them stay there year after year 

 until the dwindling foliage tells you that 

 they have exhausted their soil. The 

 beautiful varieties of Spanish Iris are well 

 worth a place in the reserve garden for 

 supplying cut flowers. 



DUTCH IRIS. A new race of bulbous 

 Irises is known by this name. They are 

 earlier than the Spanish sorts, larger, and 

 with bolder and handsomer flowers Albert 

 Cuyp, David Teniers, Hackaert, Hob- 

 bema, Pieter de Hoogh, Rembrandt (a 

 glorious blue, and one of the best), and 

 Van der Helsh is a selection of them. 



to be grown in any one place. As to 

 the collector who rears all novelties 

 and rarities, the best way is to devote 

 to the Iris a special border where they 

 may be grown apart from other con- 

 siderations. The Iris of the riverside 

 and marsh I find the least trouble and 

 the most enduring ; such as the Siberian 

 Iris and the Japanese Iris often thrive 

 with me in wet soil near the pond side, 

 untouched and uncared for for years. 



ISATIS. A small group of peren- 

 nials, with little garden value ; the 

 Dyer's Woad, a native plant (Isatis 

 tinctoria) is interesting as yielding the 

 blue dye with which the ancient Britons 



