154 IN A GLOUCESTERSHIRE GARDEN 



duced into England till 1877 ; and yet already, from its 

 free flowering and abundance of seed, it has become in 

 some gardens almost a weed, and when introduced into 

 our woods, as is now being done, there is little doubt it 

 will soon become completely naturalised, and be a com- 

 panion and rival of our bluebells. The mass that was 

 discovered by Mr. Maw on Nymph Dagh (4000 feet) 

 v/as described by him as ' forming one of the most 

 sumptuous displays of floral beauty he ever beheld, a 

 mass of blue and white, resembling NemopMla insignis 

 in colour, but more intense and brilliant ' ; and no one 

 who knows the plant will doubt the correctness of his 

 description. 



But, even before the''squills and the Chionodoxa, our 

 spring gardens do not Avant blue flowers. We gener- 

 ally associate the iris with the early summer, but there 

 are two that will flower in the midst of snow as beauti- 

 ful as any of their summer brethren, and it is hard to 

 say which of the two is most beautiful. They are the 

 /. stijlom, of a very delicate blue, and sweet-scented, 

 which comes from Algiers, Corfu, and the Morea, and 

 of which there is a white variety of great beauty, look- 

 ing like a white orchid ; and the /. reticulata, a bulbous 

 species, with a smaller flower of a rich deep violet 

 colour, and sweet-scented, which comes from Asia 

 Minor, Syria, and Persia. Both of these are perfectly 



