128 BRECK'S BOOK OF FLOWERS. 



with long, broad leaves, and very large, light-blue flowers, on 

 stems three feet high. 



/. versicolor. Blue Flag. This is a fine indigenous 

 species, a showy ornament of our meadows in the early part of 

 summer. It succeeds well in the garden. 



/. gracilis is another native species, but not very common. 

 It has grass-like foliage, with stems one foot high, with a num- 

 ber of small purple flowers, veined with yellow ; very pretty. 



There are many other fine Iris in cultivation, with which 

 there has been such a hocus-pocus game played by the florist, 

 that it is impossible to tell their origin. I have a number of 

 varieties of this kind: one, a dwarf yellow, one foot high; 

 another, of the same height, upper petals yellow, lower ones 

 rich brown ; one ash color, shaded with blue ; one rich dark- 

 purple ; and a yellow flower, with variegated leaves. There 

 are, also, varieties innumerable, with every mixture of yellow, 

 blue, brown, purple, and white in their coloring. 



LATHYRUS. 



Everlasting Pea. 



Lathyrus latifolius, or Everlasting Pea, is a most beautiful, 

 large, diffuse perennial, producing a long succession of large 

 light-purple or pink flowers, in clusters of eight or ten each. 

 The plant is suitable for the shrubbery, arbors, or for training 

 to a trellis. When supported, it attains the height of six feet. 

 "It attaches and supports itself, like all scandent plants, by 

 means of the branching tendrils terminating its single pair of 

 broad leaflets, and which twining, economical processes are, in 

 fact, reasoning from strict analogy, the abortive rudiments of 

 other sets of leaves, though never developed." 



A variety has white flowers. It may be propagated by 

 dividing the roots, or more extensively by sowing the seeds, 



