ON IRISES. 



149 



indeed, the forms which I have brought before you have many a 

 tale to tell, besides the one on which I have built my lecture. 

 But I trust that, as a gardener speaking to gardeners, I have 

 not done wrong in putting so prominently forward what I take 

 to be a golden precept of gardening, namely, to study the 

 nature and habits of a plant in order that we may foretell its 

 w r ants and so do our best to meet them. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Bakee alluded to the great increase in the number of 

 known species, and to the extension of our knowlege of the older 

 ones, which had resulted from the exertions of Professor Foster, 

 whose labours as a cultivator, a systematist, and a physiologist 

 were highly appreciated by his fellow-horticulturists. 



Dr. Masters adverted to the lessons to be learnt by the cultiva- 

 tor from the investigation, not only of the outward conformation, 

 but also of the microscopical structure of the leaf and other parts. 

 The circumstance that the common German Iris thrives so well 

 in London gardens was readily explained by the direction and 

 peculiar structure of its leaves. 



The discussion was continued by Sir Charles Strickland, 

 Mr. C. B. Clarke, and the Chairman, Mr. W. T. Thiselton 

 Dyer, C.M.G., Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 



Professor Foster, in replying, said that he could not, either 

 from the gardening or from the botanical point of view, feel 

 content with the decision that the various forms of Iris 

 cannot be separated from each other and appropriately named. 

 The task, he knew, was a very difficult one, and he himself was 

 that moment at that stage of a progress known as the Slough 

 of Despond ; but he meant to struggle towards the other side of 

 the slough, and he hoped that some day he should emerge. In 

 conclusion, while thanking his audience for their kind attentive- 

 ness, he desired to express publicly how much he had been 

 indebted for rare and new Irises to various missionaries, more 

 especially to the members of the American mission in Asia 

 Minor, and he should only be too glad to be at any time the 

 channel for conveying to them help in the good work which 

 they were carrying on. 



