290 SHRUBBERIES AND FLOWER-GARDENS. [CHAP. 



of seven or eight feet, and in July, and on to September, blows a 

 beautiful little bell-shaped scarlet flower. Give it a good, but 

 rather light, soil ; and propagate by sowing in pots in a hot-bed, 

 not many seeds in a pot, so that each plant may be taken out 

 with a ball of earth to its roots. It is considered a green-house 

 plant; but, if brought on in a hot-bed of moderate heat, and 

 planted out near the end of May in a good situation, will do 

 very Avell in the open air in England. 



508. IXIA. — Lat. Ixia hulhocodium. A fi'ame plant of Nar- 

 bonne and the Island of Corsica; a small bulbous root, and blows 

 a violet, purple, or white flower, in March and April. Propagated 



from offsets. Bending-stalked. — Lat. I. flexuosa. Pretty 



bunch of flowers, purplish, ^vith a deep purple spot at the 

 base. Flowers in April and May ; growing ten inches high. 

 Very slender stalk. The Ixias and the Gladiolas are beautiful 

 bulbous plants of elegant size and shape, and blowing most beau- 

 tiful flowers from May to July. They are generally cultivated in 

 stoves ; but they may be made to grow and flower very well also 

 in the open air, if carefully treated. Plant them in pots with a 

 couple of handfuls of sand at the bottom, the rest of the pot 

 being filled up with bog earth ; the pots should be kept out of the 

 reach of frost, and in as warm a situation as is convenient. The 

 proper time to take up these bulbs is when the leaves are diying 

 up ; but sometimes they are left in the ground two or three years 

 to suffer the offsets to enlarge, and then these are planted out to 

 be fit for blowers, which will be the second year after being 

 parted. 



509. IRIS, small bulbous. — Lat. Iris xiphium. A bulbous 

 plant from Portugal, which blows in June ; its flowers are blue, 

 violet, yellow, or luhite. It hkes a light but rich soil, and requires 



to be moved and its roots separated eveiy three years. Iris, 



yelloiu. — Lat. Iris psuedoacorus. Common in England at 

 the sides of marshy places, growing at the edge of the water, 

 and blowing in J une ; I never observed these but where the 

 land was stiff clay. Very handsome plant, rising two feet or 

 more in height, and proper for the sides of ponds, or ri\Tilets, in 

 gardens or pleasure-grounds. Move them in August or Sep- 

 tember. Iris, Persian. — Lat. Iris Persica. A httle bulbous 



plant of great dehcacy ; grows seven or eight inches high, and 

 blows a pretty, regularly-formed, and singularly sweet-scented 



