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JOUKNAL OF THE ROYAL HOETICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



J. urmiensis (fig. 170), /. iberica, &c. ; and those about which at present suc- 

 cess is least marked are LjKLradoxa and 1. urmiensis, but this may, perhaps, 

 come from the fact that they naturally succeed the former, and a little 

 time may show that they are all doing equally well. It should, perhaps, 

 be said here— as this is supposed to be a paper about the cultivation of 

 Oncocyclus Irises— that while so great an emphasis has been laid on the 

 use of lime in the beds where they are growing, it is not meant at all that 

 this can do away with all the other and ordinary precautions to which we 

 have been accustomed until now. It is not right to say that lime is 

 'per se "the secret of success," but only that lime is indispensable 



Fig. 170. — Iris urmiensis. [llie Garden.) 



to it. if other things be right, and if it be wanting, no other measures, 

 however good they may be, will do. To this extent, but no more, it is 

 "the secret of success." Let other things, then, be duly remembered; 

 they are, as it seems to me, very briefly the following : — (1) Oncocyclus 

 Irises are only likely to do well in a sunshiny place ; a shady locality, or 

 one overhung with trees, would not suit them at all. (2) They must have 

 a shelter or covering over their heads in summer months, or else they will 

 start off into growth much too soon and will not blossom the next year. 

 (3) Drainage must be perfect ; they would not endure to be waterlogged 

 in any degree. (4) They like firm planting. I put boards oter my beds 



