MAKE "THE CITY BEAUTIFUL" 37 



or with a solution, as just mentioned, of potassium perman- 

 ganate, and then to counteract any acidity in the soil apply in 

 the fall or winter a dressing; of finely ground limestone or water- 

 slacked lime. 



If in any season there has been damage by larvae of the moth, 

 as soon after the first of November as may be, before the larvae 

 have left the leaf, all the Iris leaves, new and old, should be cut 

 off just above the rhizome and burned cutting underneath the 

 soil if necessary even if a few of the buds on the rhizome be 

 thereby destroyed. 



PROPAGATION 



Division Propagation by division is the usual method. The 

 cluster of root-stocks may be separated, by cutting or breaking 

 them apart, and each cluster treated as a separate plant. Such 

 a separate cluster is meant by the term "clump" in plantsmen's 

 Iris price lists. The clusters may in turn be separated into indi- 

 vidual root-stocks, and such a root-stock and sometimes, in 

 the case of very rare and expensive varieties, merely a toe is 

 what is meant by the term "single root" in Iris price lists. The 

 individual root-stocks may be cut into short pieces of an inch or 

 two in length, and each piece planted separately. The pieces, 

 even most of those without either leaves or rootlets, will in time 

 produce as good plants as the others, but a longer time will be 

 required. 



Seed The varieties of the germanica section seldom produce 

 seed, and most of the varieties of the other sections, by reason of 

 the peculiar relative positions of the anthers and stigmas, rarely 

 produce seed unless fertilized by external agency, as by bees or 

 by hand. 



"Ah! the droning of the bee! 

 In his dusty pantaloons 

 Tumbling in the Fleurs-de-lis; 

 In the drowsy afternoons 

 Dreaming in the pink sweet-pea." 



Cawein: The Farmsted. 



