172 MY GARDEN 



done this for me. The great thick-skinned ivory- 

 coloured blossoms, deepening to pure gold at the base, 

 are wonderfully beautiful, and one wishes that they 

 might be borne with greater generosity. We have used 

 these yellow Irises with the addition of Monspur and 

 Snow Queen to encircle a little ever-overflowing pool in 

 the walled garden. They bloom late in late June and 

 early July but in May the little bed is gay with Forget- 

 me-nots, Violas, and double Poet's Narcissus. 



Our pretty native, 7. versicolor, which Thoreau said is 

 too gay "like some women's bonnets," and the yellow 

 Water Flag (7. pseudacorus) , are a bit too free with their 

 progeny to make garden life quite the thing for them. 

 Far and wide the quickly germinating seeds are scat- 

 tered, and before one knows it there are cunning baby 

 Irises coming up all over the garden which in a sur- 

 prisingly short time have grown into stout clumps, and 

 choicer, less pervasive things are crowded out. But in 

 the wilder parts of the place, the meadows, or along the 

 stream or pond, these two may increase at will, and one 

 is only grateful for their fruitfulness. 



With the Bulbous Irises I have had no great ex- 

 perience though the few that are known to me have 

 made me anxious to extend my acquaintance among 

 them. Nothing could be more lovely than those be- 

 longing to the reticulata group. I have grown only 

 three of these Irises including the type, but Professor 

 Bailey gives quite a number as hardy in the vicinity of 



