GARDEN FL O WERS. 173 



The summer-flowering irises are also important. I mean 

 those that bloom in early summer. The Florentine iris, or 

 the orris root, belongs to this time. It bears large fragrant 

 white flowers with a tinge of blue, and a bright yellow- 

 white tinged with pink or lilac when they have been open 

 for some days. There are generally many flowers com- 

 pletely covering the stem. The Siberian iris is tall with 

 narrow leaves, and white and blue and delicate-veined 

 flowers. Iris $iberica,'V&r. licematophylla, is a very dark- 

 leaved early flowering kind that often blooms the second 

 and third time during the season. Linum perenne, the 

 perennial flax, is attractive all summer, with its tufts of 

 narrow foliage and its bright blue flowers, an inch or more 

 across, which seem, on their slender stalks, semi-detached 

 and floating. 



No garden would, of course, be complete without its 

 peonies and tall phloxes. The herbaceous peonies present 

 eveiy shade of white, pink, rose, 

 red, crimson, and dark purple 

 among their scores of varieties. 

 Their flowers are perhaps the 

 largest and most showy of any we 

 are likely to plant in our garden, 

 and make a great display at a dis- 

 tance. I w T ill mention one kind 

 because it is so unique. Pceonia 

 tenuifolia, fl. pi., is different from 

 all others on account of its abundant finely divided foliage, 

 from the midst of which peer out large double brilliant 

 dark-red flowers. The tall phloxes to be seen in gardens 



