470 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



decorative plants they are quite unfitted for. Curious, strange, and sad, 

 they stand in their sober colours — simply beautiful. They seem to be the 

 highest development of Iris. Born to an unhappy lot, they wend their 

 way in little companies amongst us, almost saying the fateful words of 

 the Roman gladiators : " Caesar, we who are about to die salute thee." 



Beardless Irises form the great race which abounds in America to the 

 exclusion of almost any other, and crosses over to Japan, China, and Asia 

 generally, within temperate limits. It has its finest development towards 

 the west in Iris aurea, I. ochroleuca, and I. Monnieri, gets well into 

 Europe, where the spell is taken up by I. spuria, our own I. Pseudacorus, 



Fig. 149. — Hybrid Alpine Iris. (Capame.) 



and the striking I. fcetidissima, which has hit upon a new idea and gone 

 into a scarlet blaze where one would least expect it — in its seeds, the 

 pods of which open when ripe with as much apparent pride as a turkey is 

 supposed to have. This for the larger-flowering and tall species. Of the 

 smaller and more grassy-leaved species a very strongly marked plant, 

 standing quite by itself, is Iris stylosa, of Algeria. In this species the 

 tube has been developed to a stem of 9 to 12 inches, which I found grew 

 at the rate of 2\ inches a day. It is a most desirable winter and early 

 spring blooming plant, but it prefers a little protection and the flowers are 

 safest indoors. Near to it is Iris cretensis, a plant of much smaller 

 stature. These Beardless Irises are interesting, each and all of them, but 



