31 



in which it has been planted ; possibly my calcareous soil is 

 acceptable to it. Yet, while some years it flowers freely, in other 

 years the blooms are very scarce. On the whole, it seems to me 

 to do much better when left undisturbed in the ground year after 

 year than when it is lifted, though some of the older writers 

 recommend that it should be lifted, not every year, but every 

 three or four years. It does not lend itself readily to pot culture ; 

 at least that is my experience. 



The Juno Group. 



I must now pass on to another large group of bulbous Irises. 

 In the two groups which we have been considering, both the 

 Eeticulata group and the 

 Xiphium group, the bulb is 

 composed of two or three 

 thick, fleshy coats (the 

 swollen remnants of the 

 bottoms of leaves which 

 have vanished), wrapped 

 round the baby central 

 shoot, and surrounded in 

 turn by a certain number 

 of thin membranous wrap- 

 pings, varying in the dif- 

 ferent species. The bulb, 

 if examined when ripe, is 

 found to be free from all 

 roots, the old ones having 

 wholly disappeared, and the 

 new ones not yet sprouted. 

 The leaves, moreover, in all the members of the group are few, 

 often two only, and relatively long and narrow ; in many cases, 

 as we have seen, almost linear. By the possession of these 

 characters, the two groups form a single group, to which the 

 name Euxiphion has been given. 



As a typical member of the other group of whicli I am about 

 to speak, let me now call your attention to an Iris, which is a very 

 old garden favourite, well known to Parkinson, Gerard, and even 

 Clusius, an Iris which has the honour of being depicted in plate 1 





FIG. 20. IRIS PERSICA (reduced). 

 (From the Garden.) 



