202 WATER GARDENING 



inspired to prepare a monograph of the iris, such as 

 Major Elwes has done for the lilies, and Mr. Hanbury 

 is doing for the hawkweeds. It would form a gorgeous 

 volume, for the blossoms of the different species are all 

 beautiful, delicately coloured, and gracefully formed. 

 It is, moreover, a peculiarly interesting section, on 

 account of its wide distribution in both Old and New 

 Worlds, its bewildering variety, and the peculiar adapta- 

 tion of the various species to extremes of temperature 

 and of wet and dry. In Britain we possess only two 

 species the yellow marsh iris above-mentioned, and the 

 wood iris or gladdon, called also the roast-beef plant, 

 because the leaves when bruised are supposed to 

 smell like cold beef. This peculiarity hardly justified 

 Linnaeus in naming the plant Iris fostidissima, an 

 evil title for a herb that only smells when crushed, 

 and then not offensively. A far more striking feature 

 of the gladdon is the seed-vessel, which, splitting open 

 in autumn, displays beaded rows of bright orange 

 seeds as large as a pea. Londoners have reason to 

 value the iris : the species germanica and tuberosa are 

 among the few flowering plants that take care of them- 

 selves in the glare and dust of town gardens. Year 

 after year masses of purple blossom are displayed in 

 neglected corners, or make the squares gay with a fleet- 

 ing glory. 



Bamboos also supply infinite grace and luxuriance 

 for the decoration of water margins, not, like the iris, 

 to be planted actually in the water or marsh, but on a 

 well-drained bank whence the roots may spread to the 



