COLD STORAGE IN WINTER 27 



now bought a handful at a penny apiece, all of which 

 unfolded magnificent flowers, in shape and size at least, if 

 not perhaps in colour. For it cannot be denied that there 

 is some truth in the criticism that this Iris looks as though 

 it were made of wet newspaper on which the type had run. 



If any still wish to try their luck with these mysterious 

 plants, let them contrive a bed in the sunniest, hottest, and 

 driest corner of their gardens. There let them make up a 

 bed of rich soil, but without fresh manure. If the soil is 

 heavy, so much the better. The surface should slope 

 sharply to the south, for this will help to throw off super- 

 fluous moisture. The rhizomes will probably be obtained in 

 the autumn, but it is important to get them early, for about 

 October they begin to shoot whether they are in the ground 

 or out of it. The best thing to do is to pack them up in a 

 box just as they arrive and send them off at once to some 

 cold storage establishment, with instructions that they should 

 be kept at a temperature of about 30 until the last week in 

 February. (If there is no local establishment, application 

 might be made to the Imperial Cold Storage Co., of South 

 Tottenham, London, where the experiment was first made 

 by the author.) They may then be planted on the prepared 

 bed, and when the flowers are over, the beds must either be 

 covered and kept dry till growth begins again, or the roots 

 must be lifted, dried, and re-stored. 



Having mentioned the chief members of this group, we 

 will pass over the numerous interesting and rarer species, 

 such as Bismarckiana, Elizabethce, Marice, and lupina, 

 which will all be found attractively described in catalogues, 

 and which, when they do flower, are weird and wonderful 

 rather than really beautiful. Fortunately there is a closely 



