18 VARIETY IN THE LITTLE GARDEN 



Fryer, and Mr. B. H. Farr, three Americans who have created 

 marvels of beauty for us in this great race of flowers. I look 

 forward this year with intensity of interest to the first blooming 

 of Miss Sturtevant's new hybrid, Mother o' Pearl. What may 

 we not expect of an iris from such hands, and bearing a name so 

 filled with color? Perry's Blue, too, said to be the bluest of the 

 sibiricas, is another anticipated beauty of the year. Edouard 

 Michel is of a warm wine-red hue; Isoline (a Vilmorin hybrid) 

 has standards of silvery lilac, falls of purplish old rose, a 

 golden throat, yellow beard. (I take these descriptions from 

 the list of the Mo villa gardens, as in all matters of color I see 

 eye-to-eye with Mr. Wister, the Secretary of the American Iris 

 Society, whose descriptions, or Mr. Boyd's, these undoubtedly 

 are.) Lent A. Williamson has but once bloomed for me. It is a 

 very fine iris, but not so surprisingly beautiful in its tones of 

 violet and purple as I had been led to expect. However, I have 

 seen only a first-year spike. 



Monsignor and Crusader — two glories in tall bearded irises, 

 both of which have done well with me; Blue Boy, from Wallace 

 of England, a delightful, very bluish flower; Mrs. Horace Dar- 

 win, an early white with violet markings; Sherwin- Wright, the 

 clear yellow so valuable for use with lovely violet flowers such 

 as Geranium grandiflorum, the purple cranesbill; two of Farr's, 

 Juniata and Windham, the first a clear lavender-blue, "deeper 

 than dalmatica" ; the second a beautiful lavender-pink — these 

 should be in all gardens. I have a desire to experiment with 

 Iris Kochii, an Italian native iris, said to be of a rich, clear 

 purple. I doubt if it can rival a little marvel of a flower, Perry's 

 Richard II, the richest, darkest, most pansy-like iris I have 

 seen. This is a small flower but startling in purple beauty. So 

 far as I know, only a few people have it in this country. 



My pen has touched upon these individual irises as casually 



