JOUKNAL 



OF THE 



Royal Horticultural Society. 



on IRISES. 

 By Professor Michael Foster, Sec. R.S. 

 [Read May 14, 1889.] 



A friend of mine is fond of calling Horticulture a " pious 

 occupation," giving as his reason the old saying of the ancients : 

 " The gods rejoice when the} see a good man struggling with 

 adversity"; and, indeed, I imagine that you are all ready to 

 admit both that gardeners are good men, and that their occupa- 

 tion leads them to struggle with adversity. I, too, in my 

 gardening, have had to struggle with adversity, and to-day I 

 feel that the struggle is especially severe. When I promised 

 to say a few words to-day on Irises, I hoped that I should have 

 before me abundance of specimens to illustrate Avhat I had to 

 say. But, alas ! the season, like most seasons of our experience, 

 has proved an adverse one, and I have to struggle against 

 the difficulty of having nearly a bare table before me. My 

 friends at Kew and at Cambridge, and Mr. Barr, have kindly 

 helped me as best they could. But the fact is very few Irises 

 are as yet in bloom, and most of the few in bloom have been 

 spoilt by the rain. However, I must make the best of a bad 

 bargain, and, taking refuge in an old nursery expedient, make 

 believe, and ask you to make believe, that the Irises of which I 

 am about to speak are really here. 



Let me first of all, as a sort of rejoinder to the saying of 

 my friend which I quoted just now, remind* you that gardening, 

 especially that kind of gardening which the Royal Horticultural 

 Society, in the midst of all its ups and downs, has done so much 

 to foster, may more properly be called an impious occupation. 

 For what does the gardener, especially the gardener who 

 cherishes hardy perennial and bulbous plants, do ? He makes 



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