14 WOOD AND GARDEN 



sometimes a foot long, is the elongated tube, so that 

 the seed-pod has to be looked for deep down at the 

 base of the tufts of leaves, and almost under ground. 

 The specific name, stylosa, is so clearly descriptive, that 

 one regrets that the longer, and certainly uglier, img%i- 

 cularis should be preferred by, botanists. 



What a delight it was to see it for the first time 

 in its home in the hilly wastes, a mile or two inland 

 from the town of Algiers ! Another lovely blue Iris 

 was there too, I. alata or scorjoioides, growing under 

 exactly the same conditions; but this is a plant 

 unwilling to be acclimatised in England. What a 

 paradise it was for flower-rambles, among the giant 

 Fennels and the tiny orange. Marigolds, and the im- 

 mense bulbs of Scilla Tnaritima standing almost out of 

 the ground, and the many lovely Bee-orchises and 

 the fairy-like Narcissus serotinus, and the groves of 

 Prickly Pear wreathed and festooned with the graceful 

 tufts of bell-shaped flower and polished leaves of 

 Clematis cirrhosa / 



It was in the days when there were only a few 

 English residents, but among them was the Rev. Edwyn 

 Arkwright, who by his happy discovery of a white- 

 flowered Iris stylosa, the only one that has been found 

 wild, has enriched our gardens with a most lovely 

 variety of this excellent plant. I am glad to be able 

 to quote his own words : — 



"The finding of the white Iris stylosa belongs to 

 the happy old times twenty-five years ago, when there 



