318 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Of stately plants which blossom in the summer in my garden, 



Centaurea babylonica, Ferula tingitana, and Acanthus latifolius 

 are as good examples as could be named, but they are known to 

 everybody. I like Campanula latifolia very much, and in 

 moister spots than any which I have it soon becomes very orna- 

 mental indeed. Mclianthus major, from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 has very handsome and distinct pinnate leaves, but then it 

 cannot be called quite hardy in every locality. Irises are the 

 pride of my garden during the bright days of summer, and what 

 can be more beautiful, and even stately too, than Iris pallida, 

 Iris ochroleuca, Iris aurea, and several others that might be 

 named ? But it is not of these that I would especially say a word 

 now. They can be grown anywhere, and my especial delight is 

 in those which are much more difficult to manage, and even more 

 commendable. I refer to the members of the Oncocyclus group, 

 which form the ne plus ultra of gardening, and which should be 

 cultivated with the greatest possible care wheresoever there is a 

 chance of their doing well. These Oncocyclus Irises begin, of 

 course, to blossom in May ; but they run on into June, and 

 sometimes even into July. I know that they have been specially 

 dealt with by such experts as Professor Foster and Herr Max 

 Leichtlin of Baden-Baden, to both of whom my deepest obliga- 

 tions are owed ; but in a review of my best summer flowers it is 

 impossible for me to make no allusion at all to their crown and 

 their glory. I may say at once that they cost me a great deal of 

 trouble and a great many mistakes, and some time and money, 

 before I could at last aver that I have these Irises in my hands, 

 and now nothing in my garden affords greater satisfaction to me 

 than they do. I have at last been able to pilot nearly thirty 

 specimens through a difficult autumn and a very horrible winter 

 indeed without a single loss, and I may therefore, I think, say 

 that I know how to grow them at last. My list includes the best 

 among the best, viz. Iris Susiana, I. Gatesii, I. paracloxa, 

 I. Korolkoivi, &c, &c, and I can now almost guarantee the life 

 of any member of this group that may be named. But this 

 measure of success has not been arrived at all at once. Dis- 

 appointment after disappointment had to be met and battled with 

 from time to time. In a much-esteemed gardening quarter the 

 word of direction ran thus : " The non-bulbous Irises like rich 

 soil full of decomposed vegetable matter," and similar advice has 



