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VARIETY IN FLOWERS OF EARLY SUMMER 



The iris is now so constantly before the mind and the eye of 

 the gardener, and so much is written and said of it to-day that, 

 as June comes, it begins to press the rose for pride of place. 

 Could we imagine a greater contrast in type of the same flower 

 than between Julius Caesar and delicatissimay for instance: the 

 first with slender, definitely marked falls and equally well de- 

 fined standards, the second of a delicate lilac color, with a soft 

 voluminousness seen in almost no other occupant of the flower 

 border. 



Why consider here any of the technical points of classification 

 of the iris? Are not all these things written for us in the great 

 Dykes book, where "pogons" and "apogons" and all other 

 remote and difficult things are as the writer's daily food.'' Does 

 not the American Iris Society cover for us all the abstruse 

 points concerning this flower of the rainbow? Why concern 

 ourselves with too much learning, when two sources as infallible 

 as these are present for our use? No one should minimize the 

 importance of accurate botanical knowledge of plants and 

 flowers. No one can collect, be it ever so hesitatingly and little, 

 without going to authorities and learning to classify. But here 

 I wish to emphasize the beauty of certain forms and colors in 

 the iris, and especially to dwell upon the enormous decorative 

 value of the flower for gardens. 



Let me set dowTi for my own satisfaction the names of a few 

 varieties which, in our garden, have shown themselves strikingly 

 interesting and strikingly lovely. But first let me speak one 

 word of gratitude to such hybridizers as Miss Sturtevant, Mr. 



