IRIS 213 



from the fuller and more satisfying rotundity of the flag- 

 shape, and from the clematoid broad magnificence of 

 tectonim and Kaempferi. Others of this persuasion are of 

 prime importance for the large bog; and of these the 

 sovereign is Iris gigantea — the tallest grower of all, 

 with immense great sword-like stiff leaves, and big flowers 

 of creamy- white and orange, which are only just not big 

 enough for the stature and general appearance of the 

 plant. This, with all its cousinhood, is an easy and 

 splendidly persistent plant in any cool moist soil, making 

 a fine feature at the head of a lake, or in some deep damp 

 nook, with its eight or ten feet of height, and its keen, 

 fierce foliage stiff and stern as a New Zealand Flax. 

 Similar, but not quite so great and high, are longifolia, 

 aurea, Monnieri, spuria, their hybrid Monspur, and another 

 hybrid called A. J. Balfour. Then comes the smaller 

 Iris cuprea, with which I have never done much — more 

 from lack of effort, I think, than for lack of anything 

 else. Then with regard to our own two native Irises — 

 pseud-acorus and foetidissima, let me enter a word of 

 caution. Foetidissima is merely dull and harmless, with 

 attractive seed-pods that open in autumn and winter, 

 revealing rows of brilliant scarlet seeds amid the sere 

 foliage. But pseud-acorus is a cunning creature, against 

 whose wiles one must be watchful. It looks so mild and 

 innocent that one admits it to the garden for old sake's 

 sake. As soon as it gets there it sets to work growing 

 like Jack's bean-stalk, and seeding like a groundsel. 

 Years of effort will hardly rid you of the common yellow 

 Flag-Iris, if once you admit it ; and I assure the believing 

 that 1 have seen it, under cultivation, grown to twice the 

 stature of a full-grown man, an enormous, tropical-look- 

 ing weed, making the Aloes ashamed, and wiping the 

 Phormiums off the face of the earth. With what wry- 

 mouthed disgust did the poor gardener contemplate that 



