162 MY GARDEN 



prison here when the next season for blooming came. 

 She dwelt beside a wild and reckless aqueduct, which 

 my lady and I followed for an adventurous mile or 

 two, until it leapt out on to a little precipice and 

 defied us. 



Italica is a variety of the pumila, Chamaeiris, and 

 another variety is olbiensis a plant offered in various 

 colours by the nurserymen. From Mr. Wallace I 

 have an exceedingly pretty variety of rich yellow 

 with a spatter of purple on the fall. Meda is another 

 fine, fragrant pumila which I lack. Mr. Lynch 

 speaks highly of it. 



Next we may take the two-flowered pogons ; and 

 of these one appears with the pumilas. Lutescens 

 will appeal to those who love a delicate colour har- 

 mony. It bears twin blooms on a twelve-inch stalk ; 

 and the standards, which are cream-coloured, curl 

 over each other in a very dainty fashion. Their 

 claws are veined with pale purple, and the style- 

 arms peep between. The pollen of lutescens is white, 

 and the filaments a delicate purple. The beard of 

 this iris is tipped with yellow, and it extends an inch 

 on to the fall ; while the fall itself is traversed by 

 delicate veins of purple-brown, which begin sharply 

 defined and pale away over the surface of the petals. 

 The plant came to me as a pumila, but soon showed 

 it was sailing under false colours. Thereupon I 

 marched it off to a gravel path and planted it there. 

 The edg of a gravel path, by the way, is an excel- 

 lent place for hardy rhizomatous irises ; and if you 

 can borrow a steam-roller to plant them with, so 



