128 MY GARDEN 



banners with strange devices. Xiphion, Gynandiris, 

 and Juno have bulbs ; Hermodactylus trusts to a 

 tuber ; the rootstock of the precious Nepalenses is a 

 bud, and their roots made me fancy that I had an 

 alstromeria, when a generous friend bless his kindly 

 heart gave me some of this rarest of irises straight 

 from the Himalayas. In my spirit was a doubt, and 

 therefore I evoked the giant " Slave of the Iris " : the 

 magician or jin who has won such world-wide repu- 

 tation by his marvellous feats with this marvellous 

 flower. He makes new irises as Paris makes new 

 fashions ; at his touch the wonders of the Oncocyclus 

 and Regelia groups blend and mingle ; at his nod 

 these coy queens of the garden come forth in their 

 royal robes to make even hardened horticulturists 

 stare and hold their breath. And yet an amateur, 

 a muddler, a duffer, who didn't know the root of 

 nepalensis when he saw it, dared to summon the 

 magician to his aid, and succeeded in winning from 

 him rich stores of knowledge by return of post ! All 

 this is to say that Sir Michael Foster, with his usual 

 generosity and enthusiasm where the rainbow flower 

 is concerned, declared for nepalensis, and said that I 

 was a lucky man to have it, since, even with him, 

 the iris had become exceedingly scarce. Mark how 

 virtue is rewarded. The friend who had given me 

 my irises knew Sir Michael, and, on learning that he 

 lacked this treasure, swiftly supplied him therewith. 

 You see, my dear Cunningham, if you encourage 

 people who trust for a living to printed pages, you 

 must expect these surprises and find your light 



