HARDY IRISES. 



469 



beyond to white, but they decline the pure red or red- scarlet, and when it 

 is forced on them by hybridising the inherent blue blood gives a bronzy 

 tinge. Flowers, in hydridising, it may be remarked here, behave as to 

 colour mixture as the pigments on the artist's palette, and not according 

 to spectrum. From this, and from many disappointments, I suggest 

 that the desired colour will only be reached after this plant— a variegata 

 for choice— has resided in and become accustomed to a hot dry climate, 

 and that the success will occur there. The improvement manifested in an 

 Iris flower of warm tints is most marked upon the advent of genial 

 weather and heat ; indeed, without these, many plants are utterly out of 



Fig. 148. — Hybrid Alpine Iris. (Caparne.) 



character, and in a cold, uncomfortable season, it may be said of the 

 early-flowering sections more especially, blue splashes and stripes are apt 

 to appear, which are not normally there, and should sunshine and a 

 genial change come, the later flowers on the same plants are quite 

 different. There are good and bad Rose seasons, and for similar reasons 

 good and bad Iris seasons, quite apart from the failings which cccur 

 from a cultivator's point of view, though here the non-success of one 

 season should lay down the programme for the next. One cannot 

 leave the subject of Bearded Iris without referring to the very beautiful 

 section of Oncocyclus or Cushion Iris. Garden plants these can never be ; 



