io PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



with an outer coat consisting of a network of fibres. 

 The name is derived from the Latin reticulum, a little 

 net 



All the members of this group are natives either of Asia 

 Minor or of the regions immediately to the east, north, and 

 south of that country, and all agree in possessing narrow 

 leaves, which are irregularly four-sided, and which end 

 in a horny top. The southernmost representative is 

 apparently /. Vartanii, which comes from Nazareth, and 

 flowers in October or November. It is consequently diffi- 

 cult to keep, and as the colour is a poor, slaty blue, it would 

 hardly be worth cultivating, except for its delightful scent 

 of almonds, and for the fact that it flowers when few other 

 Irises can be relied upon to send up their blooms. Next 

 year we may hope to see a pure white form of this Iris, and 

 let us hope that it will prove to have a stronger constitution 

 than the type. It is said to have appeared among seedlings 

 in a garden. 



Next in order of time comes an Iris, which was named 

 Histrio from the fact that its flowers are so brightly and 

 conspicuously blotched and splashed with deep blue on a 

 pale blue ground that the colours appear almost to have 

 been laid on with a brush. It is said to be distinguished 

 from histrioides by the fact that its leaves are of some 

 length before the flowers appear, while histrioides throws 

 up its bloom simultaneously with the leaves. This dis- 

 tinction is of doubtful value, and the probable explanation 

 is that both the one and the other are merely local forms 

 of the same thing. 



A very early flowering dwarf Iris of this group is that 

 named by Foster /. reticulata sophenensis. The colour is 



