IRIS 199 



race ; and I only speak of them now loosely, and for the 

 purpose of guidance as to the adornment of the garden. 

 Well, as to the bulbous Irids, alata, histrio, bakeriana, 

 histrioeides, orchioeides, taurica, persica, Heldreichi, reticu- 

 lata and their kindred, hardly one of them is for me. For 

 sharp, rich, sandy soil, for perfect drainage, for dry cold 

 winters, for fierce, baking summers, all these are treasures 

 of loveliness through the griping early days of January and 

 February; and those who revel in such conditions may 

 also revel in the bulbous Irises of the Levant. Here it is 

 impossible for me to supply drainage keen enough, a 

 summer v/arm enough, a winter dry and cold enough. 

 My conditions, in which Primulas and Gentians rejoice, is 

 slow death to the bulbous Irids; they barely endure the 

 long, soaking dreariness of autumn, the wet, open mildness 

 of winter; and then, with early spring, they send up, 

 perhaps, one hesitating, frail flower. A slug takes it as 

 a hors d'ceuvre, a mouse for dessert ; what is left— a flap- 

 ping, torn relic — is washed threadbare with spring rains, 

 and splashed with mud until its original design and 

 colour can only be guessed. Next season, of course, the 

 wretched bulb prefers death to another such unprofitable 

 effort. One, only, has to be excepted from this dreary 

 list. Iris reticulata approves of me, and occasionally, for 

 some mysterious reason, prospers most unreasonably. In 

 one dank, shady border, there is a bulb that flowers obstin- 

 ately from year to year, and neither dies nor increases. 

 And, throughout the garden, I am liable to outbreaks of 

 unsuspected Iris reticulata every season. Perhaps of all 

 the bulbous species, too, reticulata is the loveliest, with 

 its thin rush-like leaves and its three-pronged flower of 

 intense violet, eyed with orange, and scented with the 

 fierce deliciousness of the violet whose colour it imitates. 

 Leichtlini is larger and paler, and the major form of 

 reticulata is also well spoken of, but the type reticulata is 



