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JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



any other flower — the texture of their petals and the variety of 

 surface in the same petal make up a picture that I believe one 

 must have a few failures in trying to represent before properly 

 appreciating. One sees sometimes a mass of rhizomes and but 

 few blooms in gardens, but that is not the fault of the plant, 

 in all Iris the blooming point, and making of seed after it, is the 

 end of life for that individual, be it rhizome or bulb, and no 

 plant of them will flower again unless a reserve of strength has 

 been built up for the support of a previously developed progeny. 

 In bulbous Xiphions often several, in rhizomes at least two, 

 capable of separate existence are produced, one on each side 

 of the parent which is soon to terminate existence. To make 

 the plant flower each full-grown rhizome must be matured 

 and ripened by exposure to direct sunshine ; this means no over- 

 crowding, and I fear that from its power of being able to exist, 

 even under trees, it has often been ruthlessly planted there, 

 to lead a spoilt life, for it is essentially a child of the sun, and 

 that has something to answer for in the want of popularity in 

 Iris as a flower. 



With the next group, the Oncocyclus, we find that sun is such 

 an all-powerful factor that any trifling neglect on our part to 

 get, store, preserve, or imitate the effects of his Asiatic rays 

 quickly ends in collapse and direful loss. When we get their 

 rhizomes they are not very much to look upon, but if we are not 

 careful they will be very much less before long, though from the 

 prices which now obtain for them we see that this very wild 

 child of the desert is being made to perform in some gardens. 

 April and May, with those happy people who can grow the 

 Oncocyclus group of Iris, is the cream of the whole flower year. 

 The plants all seem to live within a certain radius of the Caspian 

 Sea, and develop most in number around what is sometimes 

 called the Cradle of the World. A glance at the table of distri- 

 bution at once shows us the jump in number of species, not 

 only of Oncocyclus. but of others, that takes place in Persia, 

 Mesopotamia, Armenia, Syria, &c. When we look at the flowers 

 themselves of these species and see that here of all places are 

 congregated the most refined, perfect in form and colour, of all 

 this great family of plants (their colours are not by any means 

 so gay as their neighbours on either hand), we can well realise 

 that when those early potentates gave the flower the place of 



