62 PRESENT-DAY GARDENING 



with flowers of a milk-white colour, among the best of which 

 is that known in gardens as Snow Queen. 



In recent years the exploration of Western China has 

 added many beautiful plants to our gardens, and it is to the 

 two well-known plant collectors, Wilson and Forrest, that we 

 are indebted for two yellow-flowered relatives of /. sibirica, 

 namely, /. Wilsonii, and /. Forrestii. The former has the habit 

 of the true /. sibirica, with numerous flowers on tall, hollow 

 stems, of two shades of pale yellow, lightly veined with 

 purple near the base of the segments. /. Forrestii is dwarfer 

 even than /. orientalis, but is of a clearer yellow colour, and 

 in some plants, at any rate, the falls are remarkably long 

 and ample. Enough time has not elapsed since their intro- 

 duction into our gardens to enable us to say whether these 

 species will afford colour variations. Another Chinese 

 novelty is /. chrysographes, with flowers of the richest, deep 

 red-purple, veined with gold. This is another of Wilson's 

 introductions, and it flowered for the first time in England 

 in 1911. 



A less recent introduction from China, belonging to 

 the same group of hollow-stemmed plants, is /. Delavayi, 

 which needs more moisture than those previously men- 

 tioned if it is to flower well. The stems grow 4 feet 

 in height in rich soil, and the flowers are conspicu- 

 ously blotched, rather than veined, with white on a deep 

 purple ground. In the wild plant the flowers are some- 

 what small, but hybrids of it have already given forms 

 with far finer flowers, that will flower much more freely 

 in drier soil than that which /. Delavayi demands. 



In America the group is represented by /. prismatica, 

 which has a slender, wide-running rhizome, a peculiarly 



