ON GETTING THERE 15 



and there is marked out for the honour of multi- 

 plication. A somewhat remote honour, which will 

 not bring them into catalogue fame yet ; may not 

 bring them at all. For this reason the naming of 

 the purple iris is hardly important, little more than 

 a graceful compliment to the namer. The chances 

 are rather in favour of the flower not being found 

 worthy of founding a family to use the name ; and 

 even if it were, like the thousands of babies daily 

 named, there is small likelihood of its achieving 

 great fame. 



Beyond the irises, divided by a high hornbeam 

 screen, there are white gladioli ; from the distance 

 little but an irregular white blur in a small field 

 they do not fill ; but near spotless flowers, bending 

 like a bevy of shy girls at their first communion, 

 or novices waiting their bridal with the Church. 

 Den Heer will stop to tell you which is the " true 

 Bride," the perfect snow-white flower with no 

 suspicion of purple on the stamen tips or faintly 

 tinging the depth of the throat. He will tell you 

 how the beautiful Bride, no matter how carefully 

 grown and selected, has a tendency in these faint 

 colour stains to show its remote ancestor, the ugly 

 little magenta flower of the Canary Islands. He 

 will also pick out for you the full flower head, 



