212 ALPINES AND BOG-PLANTS 



have certainly made a fine and permanent success of 

 Iris Kaempferi. It is early days, as yet, perhaps, to say 

 so much of Iris albo-purpurea, with its white variety ; but, 

 as far as I can see, under the same treatment as I gave 

 Kaempferi, these rare beauties are now advancing on the 

 same happy way, and I look forward, this season, to their 

 big white and purple blossoms. And last of all comes 

 an Iris near sibirica, which I bought at a Night-Fair in 

 Tokio, and which has since developed into two enormous 

 bushes of narrow, flopping foliage, emitting from their 

 thickets a sheaf of tall stalks with disproportionately 

 large flowers, opulent, solid, creamy-pure. 



The Spanish and the English Iris are both bulbous, 

 but of cheerfuller temper than any of their cousins from 

 the Levant. However, except for light dry soils, in light 

 dry climates, I would hardly recommend Iris xiphioeides as 

 a certain perennial for the rock-garden. Far different is 

 it with the gorgeous old English Iris, whose huge, deep 

 azure flowers make the pride of many a cottage-garden. 

 Ins Xiphion is, I believe, a southerner and Spaniard of 

 very limited distribution, and yet this outlander has so 

 happily established itself with us as to have acquired the 

 ridiculous name of English Iris (while, by another ironical 

 paradox, it is the Iris called germanica that is the Royal 

 Lily of old France). Iris Xiphion has many varieties in 

 the way of colour, but none, to my mind, touches the com- 

 mon midnight blue — which has the further pride of being 

 the most vigorous of the many vigorous forms of Xiphion. 

 All it requires is to be let alone for ever and ever in any 

 good garden loam ; and in crowded, rough corners of the 

 rock-garden it makes a splendid patch of colour, which 

 may punctually be relied on to appear each season with 

 the coming of June. 



Xiphion and xiphioeides bring one back to the tricera- 

 tops form of flower — the triple prong — as distinguished 



