Succession same time as the Daffodils, the purple looking particularly well 

 of Iris in front of Emperor Narcissus. On soil they like they are 

 excellent for borders ; a nursery gardener near here uses them to 

 edge many of the paths ; they make a firm band of low green, 

 brilliant when in flower. After the pumlla group come one 

 after the other, through the Summer, the many forms of Iris 

 Germanica, Sibirica, Spanish, Ocbroleuca^ Aurea, Monnieri and 

 Spuria, the English, and latest of all the Japanese, in July and 

 August. 



Iris Germanica is in beauty now. The illustration was 

 taken from borders of them running down each side of our 

 pergola. The purple and white varieties, which were flowering 

 the end of May, are over, and they are succeeded by a few of 

 the numberless kinds worth growing. The whole effect is a 

 lovely mauve blue it is often called, but blue to me is the 

 colour of Forget-me-not or Anchusa Italica, for instance. There 

 are red-mauve and blue-mauve flowers, combined with purple 

 and bronze, an infinite variety of shades. They bloom for some 

 weeks, and are there to greet the early roses like Madame Alfred 

 Carriere and Reine Olga de Wurtemburg. An added charm is 

 the difference in their heights. Dalmatica is a foot taller than 

 the others, giving a pleasing irregularity to the outline it flowers 

 later, too, and looks particularly well grouped at the foot of a 

 Reve d'Or Rose with its loose bunches of yellow Roses. 



My favourites are 



Pallida a large self mauve. 



Dalmatica another large round flower of most exquisite 

 mauve set well apart on tall stems. 



Conte de St Glair white standards, violet and white falls. 



Mrs H. Darwin white with a waved edge, veined and 



