268 THE GARDEN, YOU, AND I 



blooming season, for there seems to be no country so 

 poor as to be without an Iris. 



There are joyous flowers of gold and royal blue, 

 the Flower de Luce (Flower of Louis) of regal France, 

 and sombre flowers draped in deep green and black 

 and dusky purple, "The widow" (Iris tuberosa) and 

 the Chalcedonian Iris (Iris Susiana), taking its name 

 from the Persian Susa. Iris Florentina by its powdered 

 root yields the delicate violet perfume orris, a corrup- 

 tion doubtless of Iris. 



Many forms of root as well as blossom has the Iris, 

 tuberous, bulbous, fibrous, and if the rose may have 

 a garden to itself, why may not the Iris in combina- 

 tion with its sister lilies have one also? And when 

 my eyes rest upon a bed of these flowers or upon a 

 single blossom, I long to be a poet. 



***** * * 



Now to begin : will your shady place yield you a bed 

 four feet in width by at least twenty in length? If 

 so, set Barney to work with pick and spade. The 

 top, I take it, is old turf not good enough to use 'for 

 edging, so after removing this have it broken into 

 bits and put in a heap by itself. When the earth 

 beneath is loosened, examine it carefully. If it is 

 good old mellow loam without the pale yellow colour 



