DIVISIONS OF IRIS GENUS 5 



flowers is of very little importance, and indeed it is often 

 unknown to him, for in most cases he has never seen the 

 living plant, but only dried herbarium specimens. To the 

 gardener, however, it is somewhat disconcerting to find 

 that in the scientific Handbook the flowers of five out of the 

 first six species are dismissed with the laconic description 

 "limb lilac," nor is he much helped by the occasional 

 addition of the qualifying adjectives, "bright," "dark," 

 and "plain." 



Mons. H. Correvon's little work, entitled Les Iris dans 

 les JardinSj is obviously founded on Mr. Lynch's book, 

 but contains certain additions and some useful cultural 

 hints. 



CHAPTER I 



THE DIVISIONS OF THE IRIS GENUS 



VARIOUS attempts have been made to arrive at the natural 

 divisions among Irises, but no entirely satisfactory system 

 has yet been thought out. It may, however, be as well to 

 give some rough outline of the main classes into which 

 Irises seem to fall, and to explain the significance of the 

 names that have been applied to the various groups. 



The first and main division is into bulbous and non- 

 bulbous species. Each of these two main divisions falls 

 in its turn into several subdivisions, which themselves may 

 be further subdivided into groups. 



To take first the bulbous Irises, the bulb may in its resting 



