220 YARD AND GARDEN 



have been familiar for years, even for gener- 

 ations. But there are other varieties with 

 whicli we are not so familiar, but which are 

 no more exacting or fastidious in their de- 

 mands or their tastes. Then there are still 

 others, veritable aristocrats in all their re- 

 quirements as well as in the beauty of their 

 bloom. These — the Oncocyclus group, with 

 flowers delicately veined and reticulated, gen- 

 erally with a darker color on a light back- 

 ground, natives of Persia, Armenia and 

 Afghanistan — require special culture and at- 

 tention, and are as difficult to grow as the 

 others are easy. For the amateur they can 

 not be recommended, though, now and then, 

 one finds a gardener who is interested enough 

 in the irises to attempt the cultivation of this 

 difficult class. A representative of it is the 

 mourning iris, or Iris Snsiana, frequently of- 

 fered in the American catalogues, and usually 

 with the misleading announcement that it is 

 easily grown. 



It is not easily grown; indeed, the amateur 

 seldom succeeds with it. Yet it is the easiest 

 of the Oncocyclus group to grow. It, like 

 other varieties of the same class, requires 

 hard sun-baking after its short blooming sea- 



