VARIETY IN FLOAVERS OF EARLY SUMMER 19 



as their visiting butterfly might do. There has been no attempt 

 to give even tlie suggestion of a list or group. Yet in association 

 with other flowers lies surely one of the most delicious uses of the 

 iris. A picture in waiting of an English iris-garden in June de- 

 lightfully haunts me. "A shadow-checkered lawn sloping away 

 to the margin of the woodland. Broad grassy ways lead the 

 vision onward toward clearings through which the distant land- 

 scape becomes focused pictures. Between the trim niceties of 

 mown lawn and wilder woodland the ground has been tamed as 

 it were to a natural wildness. Broad masses of irises have been 

 planted along each ascending pathway, with broad carpetings of 

 catmint (Nepeia mussini). Stately lupines assist the later irises 

 in breaking up any possible monotony of contour; Erigerons 

 supply pink and buff and lavender-blue, and a wealth of gray 

 foliage has been distributed with lavish hand. Here is a soft 

 color group of rose-amber and lavender-purple: Her Majesty, 

 Miriam, Phyllis Bliss, Sincerity, Troost, Monsieur Aymard, and 

 Da\^-n, with a gray carpeting of Artemisia stelleriana. In a group 

 near by is a purple and gold combination composed of the giant 

 Lord of June, Othello, Tamerlane, Neptune, Emir, with a yellow 

 lupine and Iris germanica aurea. Then there is a sunset group in 

 which Eldorado, Iris King, Nuee d'Orage, Nibelungen, Mme. 

 Blanche Pion, Marsh Marigold, Honorable, and Maori King 

 mingle their wonderful and indescribable colors." 



Now when this writer goes on to say that, earlier in the season, 

 these long wide beds were bordered with the Crimean irises 

 {Iris pumila) in all their crocus-like colors; w^hen he tells us that, 

 among the bearded irises of the named groups above, many 

 later blooming irises, such as the sihirica, aurea, Monnieri, are 

 showing their leaves with promise of fine color later, and that 

 purple tones again are planned for autumn by the interplanting 

 of many hardy asters — what is the effect upon us? I know 



