A SHORT PAPER ON IRIS. 



31 



give such a profusion of flowers, and light up the garden with 

 masses of bloom, in a way one cannot describe. They like a 

 very sunny spot, a bank for choice ; soil not very particular, but 

 perhaps light ; and for climate, a wet spring with no frosts, a 

 hot, dry summer, the hotter the better, and a hard, dry winter. 

 I have, by way of experiment, taken up a number, and kept them 

 exposed to air in a covered shed from November to February, no 

 soil whatever about them, and they flourished after it as though 

 they liked it. This is not their culture, observe ; it is simply 

 an illustration of dry winter. But when they are happy they 

 grow in such a cumulative way that, being hungry plants, they 

 must be taken up and divided, and given fresh soil every three or 

 four years, their chief enemies being autumn and winter wet, wood- 

 lice, which burrow under the rhizomes and eat the growing points 

 of the new roots, and snails, which are very fond of the flowers. 

 In raising hybrids in this section my aim has been (1) to extend 

 the range of colour, (2) to add to the number of flowers on 

 a stem, (3) to extend the season of blooming and make it con- 

 tinuous. The size of flower I place last. 



The other beardless group is very different in manner of 

 growth, as well as in inflorescence, and time of blooming, being 

 of much larger stature and distinctly summer blooming, com- 

 mencing the latter half of May, through June, and ending in 

 July. These are for the most part comprised in half-a-dozen 

 species, of which Germanica is the earliest, and blooms in end 

 of May and early June. Well known by the typical Blue Flag 

 of gardens, it has several varieties, the greatest flowers and 

 most remarkably vivid colours being found in those forms which 

 come from Asia Minor. 



Following these are the half-dozen marked species — pallida, 

 squalens, variegata, amo&na, sambucina, neglecta — marked 

 always by manner of inflorescence, character of spathe valves, 

 the green or, in pallida, paperlike envelope to the unopened 

 flower bud. The width of leaf is great and colour glaucous in 

 Pallida, ribbed and green in Amcena and neglecta, strongly tinged 

 with purple at base in Variegata, which is the smallest and 

 latest plant of this group ; and under one or other of these heads 

 •chiefly are to be found the numerous beautiful varieties that 

 go to make garden Irises so beautiful. They have wonderful 

 developments of colour harmonies — a greater range perhaps than 



