THE IRIS 143 



crimson-brown. The style-branches match the falls, 

 but are coloured a duller crimson, and the tint is 

 spread in a wash rather than spatter. At the edge, 

 however, they too are spattered ; the median ridge 

 lifts a little, and the style-crest is dotted like the falls, 

 but much more minutely. Short reddish hairs lie in 

 the throat under the pale yellow anther, and the fall, 

 which is translucent, curves round under the flower, 

 so that its wondrous beauty is somewhat lost. The 

 standards bend together like fairy wings, and their 

 claws are also crimson dotted. 



From Lebanon comes this glorious flower, and 

 there, on the roasting cliff-faces and far beneath the 

 snowy peaks and precipices, it flourishes at a modest 

 elevation of two thousand feet. 



Iris Gatesii, another magnificent oncocyclus, is at 

 home in Armenia, and is said to combine the qualities 

 of susiana and Lorteti. The prevailing tone is a 

 delicate grey; while in lupina, the "Wolf's Ear," 

 another Armenian, the colour scheme is a combina- 

 tion of pale brown and yellow, producing an effect 

 as of bright wolf fur. I have failed with these, but 

 succeeded with I. iberica, a plant of great beauty. It 

 varies much, the colour scheme tending to purples 

 and crimson-purples. It comes from the Caucasus, 

 and one may picture its loveliness at the feet of 

 Prometheus, where he hung crucified against those 

 eternal rocks in the awful noonday sun. Paradoxa 

 has so far defied me also, but such an astonishing 

 thing must be flowered at any cost of time and 

 patience. " It is grotesquely beautiful," happily says 



