THE PROPERTIES OE THE IRIS. THE GARDENIA. 
523 
is pretty sure to be a great variety, without 
our giving ourselves the trouble to cross the 
various plants on purpose. Nature is no bad 
workwoman, and when left to herself will 
often do what none of us dream of. 
THE PROPERTIES OF THE IRIS. 
The lover of flowers could with a little 
consideration tell us, instead of leaving us to 
tell him, why he preferred one variety of any 
kind of plant to another, but scarcely any one 
will give himself time to inquire or consider, 
and rests satisfied with the simple fact that 
he does prefer it. Therefore it is that in 
many of the most common things we have 
been obliged to lay down rules and explain 
principles upon which the merits of a subject 
may be tested. 
The growers of the iris know that the 
Spanish and Persian varieties are not so rich 
as the English kind adopted by florists. Why 
is this ? Simply because the principal petals 
of the latter are broader. If these broad petals 
are richer than narrow ones, a point is gained 
by broad petals. Bright or dense colours are 
preferred to dull watery undefined shades. 
Thick petals stand longer and hold their form 
better than thin ones. Smooth edges look 
better than rough or notched ones ; and so we 
get at certain beauties, which a flower must 
possess to be perfect. 
This explains the principles on which the 
properties of the iris are founded, which, as 
there is some difference of opinion, we quote: — 
" The three principal petals should be broad 
enough to touch one another ; the three 
secondary ones should stand distinct and 
apart from the principal ones, and be also 
broad enough to touch one another. 
" The three principal petals should be thick, 
smooth at the edges, broad and blunt on the 
outer extremity, and curve gracefully from 
the base outwards and downwards in the 
form of the top half of a hollow globe. 
"The colour of all six petals should be 
dense, be it what it may ; pale or dark blue, 
purple, lilac, or blush, no matter which ; and 
the markings should be distinct and uniform, 
the three principal petals alike, and the other 
three alike, but not both threes of the same 
colour. 
" The texture should be velvety over the 
surface of the three principal petals, and the 
edges should be crimped or frilled, but not 
serrated. The surface of the others should be 
smooth, like wax or enamel. 
" The stems should be strong, and the 
flowers thrown up well out of the sheath, and 
bloom one at a time ; that is, the second 
should not open until the first is on the decline." 
All the floral world, from those who like 
the least to those who like the most interest- 
ing, would on seeing a flower that nearly 
approached the standard, by the side of one 
that did not, instantly decide in favour of the 
former, even if they could not tell us the reason 
why. The fact is that the more surface of 
petal there is in a given space, the more 
brilliant a flower appears ; and every vacancy 
or break looks worse than if the deficiency 
were filled up. 
THE GARDENIA OR CAPE JASMINE. 
This first favourite at the markets, as well 
as gardens, is now cultivated to a great ex- 
tent for cut flowers, as well as to be purchased 
as plants. It is one of the most delicate in ap- 
pearance and most fragrant flowers of the early 
part of the year, for it is forced forward with 
alacrity to meet the demands for the first 
flowers of the spring, and is the most beauti- 
ful of all the small flowers produced. The 
gardenia strikes freely from cuttings placed 
in sand and under a bell-glass, favoured by a 
little bottom heat, and as soon as the cuttings 
are struck, they are planted out in pots, one 
in each pot, and transferred to a common hot- 
bed, plunged in the mould to the rim of the 
pot, and kept growing sharply until they 
actually flower ; but if buds should come 
while the plants are very small, you may 
choose which you will sacrifice, the growth of 
the plant or the flower : sometimes a cut flower 
will bring more than the plant would if grown 
up to the market size, and there is no flower 
in general so popular, come at what time of 
the year it may. The grand thing to recollect 
in its cultivation is, that it rejoices in moist 
peat, and in nothing so much as a common 
hot-bed ; a few pots in a cucumber frame are 
sure to do well, and those who grow for market 
find the common hot-bed the most profitable as 
well as the most efficacious, as for the time the 
heat is just what the plant requires, and keeps 
off red spider, mealy bug, and all the other 
entomological plagues that so readily attack 
the plant in our ordinary stove. When the 
plants get large, they should be grown in the 
orchideous house, which is always moist, other- 
wise it receives a check which it rarely re- 
covers without a good deal of care, and some- 
times not at all. Cuttings taken off at a time 
when the last year's shoots have made all their 
growth will strike and bloom before they are 
three inches high, and in the thumb pots, but 
it does not follow that they should be allowed 
to do so if you wish them to be grown up 
into specimens. There is nothing surpasses 
the gardenia in fragrance, and very few plants 
equal it in beauty. 
