82 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



Ursula's white-robed virgins. Our irises 

 begin to know that they are especial 

 favourites here, and their great size, and 

 luxuriance is bewildering. Of course * they ' 

 would tell me it is only because their roots 

 have ' become established,' as they say. 

 Both Ensata and the Fleur-de-Lys bear 

 forcing well, and we have never been with- 

 out either since January. The fine broad 

 foliage of the fleur-de-lys was welcome, 

 for its masses of fresh green in winter, 

 when the flowering plants were brought 

 into the house. The white flowers send 

 forth, however, when thus forced, a 

 fragrance that some find too powerful; as 

 Gerard says of lilac, * troubling and 

 molesting the head in a strange manner, 

 with a ponticke and unacquainted savour.' 

 It is strange that Iris germanica, whose 

 scent I have sometimes known at Rome 

 (and notably where it grows round the 

 tomb of Caecilia Metella) to make the 

 sweet air still more delicious, has here no 

 kind of scent. A pleasant change of colour 

 comes, near the entrance court : it is purple 

 iris growing with a clump of amber-edged 



