134 MY GARDEN 



irregular upstanding median line of faint yellow. The 

 style branches echo the mingled colours in a darker 

 shade, and make a hood for the anthers. The pollen 

 is white ; the little standards drop abruptly between 

 the falls, and add their own tint to the harmonious 

 whole. Delicate lines mark their centres, and their 

 lobes are fretted round the margins. The grace of 

 this flower, half springing from and half nestling in 

 the great green clasping leaves, is felt by every iris 

 lover. The blossom, often four inches across, comes 

 in March. A combination of this delicate thing with 

 the purple and gold of reticulata, such as stands 

 before me while I write, actually helps to soften the 

 hard edges of life ; and if you retort that the tribula- 

 tion must be trifling to which a flower can minister, I 

 must reply, with respect, that you are wrong, and have 

 yet much to learn in the garden. 



Best of this group I love the sea-green and purple 

 of persica. In 1787 the figure of this lovely thing was 

 given as the first plate of the historic Botanical 

 Magazine, and to-day, when I open the volume, per- 

 sica faces me as fresh as when her colours were first 

 laid upon the engraved outline by a hand that must 

 have been dust these many years. For accuracy of 

 shades, the modern mechanical processes cannot stand 

 for a moment beside the old hand-painted botanies. 

 I fail to ripen this fine thing, and a year or two sees 

 it decline in company with stenophylla (Heldreichii) 

 and Sieheana (persica magna). All these flower from 

 the ripe bulb once and only once. The comparatively 

 new Tauri has flowered well with me, but whether 



