THE IRIS 135 



it will settle I know not. As the little soul comes 

 from the Eastern Taurus, and prospers at an eleva- 

 tion of 6500 feet, its constitution ought to laugh at a 

 west-country rockery. But our weeping atmosphere 

 is against us. If I could smother Tauri in snow 

 through three months of the year, he would doubt- 

 less be grateful. This iris is very handsome in the 

 fashion of I. reticulata, and a splendid laster. Mr. 

 Lynch gives it high praise, and I venture to do the 

 like. 



Another fairly new iris of the Juno company is 

 Warleyensis, which flowers well with me ; but I fail 

 to find so much beauty in it as some report. With me 

 the blossom cannot be said to have a white margin to 

 the petals ; the general tone is an indifferent purple, 

 darkening on the blade of the fall, and having a 

 median line and signal of feeble yellow. The form, 

 however, even in my inferior specimens, is ex- 

 ceedingly distinguished and effective. It is a free 

 flowerer, appearing after sindjarensis. From Eastern 

 Bokhara it comes. Orchioides I blush to lack, and 

 the new and choice Willmottiana, happily named 

 after one of the greatest woman gardeners in England, 

 is still that rare thing an expensive iris. Rosen- 

 bachiana, too, makes the purse shut thoughtfully ; 

 but it is a very great iris, and Sir Michael Foster 

 puts it, along with reticulata and alata, as among 

 his favourites. Rosenbachiana, he says, is of striking 

 beauty in its finer forms, but it varies much. At its 

 best this must be a gorgeous thing of crimson, gold, 

 and purple. " Expose to the sun, and shelter from 



