Early Irises 



I think the longest word in the Greek Lexicon was 

 invented for use in a maledictory imprecation against 

 sparrows. One feels that to pronounce it rapidly, or to 

 write it clearly on lintel and sidepost, ought to kill them 

 off in flocks. Try it ; it is quite simple, only this : opOpotyoi 

 ToirvKocpavToSiKOTaXaiTrwpo?, which being translated is 

 " early -prowling base -informing sad-litigious plaguey 

 ways," almost as beautiful in its hyphened English as in 

 the original Greek. 



The success of 7. unguicularis as a cut flower depends 

 so much on careful picking, and experience has taught me 

 how to grapple with so many sources of difficulty and 

 injury, that details are perhaps worth recording. The 

 first thing to note is that this Iris, after the fashion of the 

 Crocus and Colchicum, produces no flower stem above- 

 ground at flowering time, a long perianth tube doing duty 

 for it until the seedpod is raised up on the true stem just 

 before the seeds are ripe. A careful examination will 

 show that this Iris has a short scape among the bases of 

 the leaves, and that in healthy specimens it is about half 

 an inch in length and bears three buds at its apex. 

 Scape and buds are wrapped by one or two tough green 

 spathes, and each separate bud has two more spathes of 

 its own, of thinner texture and closely wrapped round the 

 fragile perianth tube. The central bud of these three is 

 always first to lengthen and flower, and generally is ready 

 for picking before the other two show above the tough 

 outer spathes. Therefore to avoid picking all three buds 

 at once, and so wasting the two undeveloped ones, it is 

 necessary to pull away the two outermost tough spathes 

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