i 4 8 MY GARDEN 



sent as not belonging to cristata. I wrote and told 

 my Dutchman that this was not the way to make a 

 new customer his friend ; he did not argue the 

 question, but sent another catalogue ! 



The queen of the Evansia l section is, of course, 

 fimbriata, or Chinensis, or japonica, the Chinese iris. 

 This is a tender plant, but makes strong growth in a 

 suitable situation, though I have not flowered it in the 

 open ground. As a pot plant it is much to be com- 

 mended, and flowers freely. Each lofty and delicate 

 stem carries from ten to fifteen blossoms with me, 

 but I seldom have more than three or four out simul- 

 taneously. It is a fleeting flower, and nothing can be 

 much fairer than its delicate lavender petals all bend- 

 ing at the same angle from the perianth tube in a 

 tender star of six rays. Not only are standard and 

 fall most exquisitely fringed, but the uplifted style- 

 branches break at their edges into a ragged turmoil of 

 tiny filaments, and thin away at their margins into 

 threads. The fretted edges and crimped crest make 

 this flower even lovelier than our own wild water 

 buck-bean or the villarsia. Fimbriata's standards are 

 of a colour so faint and pure, that it seems a delicate 

 shadow rather than a tint thrown upon the white 

 texture of the petal ; while over the falls, on a similar 

 ground, there lie rings of richer purple, which spread 

 into veins and die away on the blades. From the 

 midst of these rings there flashes the rich orange 

 " signal." The crest also is of brilliant yellow, with 



1 Evansia. So called after Mr. Evans of the India House, who intro- 

 duced Iris fimbriata from China somewhat more than a hundred years ago. 



