in 1743 named the Fleur de Lys of France the German Flag. We 
cannot go back on the Father of Botany, but we can remember that 
only three or four varieties are correctly classed as Iris Germanica, 
mainly the early purple and its varieties. The other 799 species (and 
57 genera) are from Asia and America, while most of the Hybrids 
came from England and France. 
In American Country Life for June, 19 19, there was an excellent 
monograph on the Iris by Mr. B. Y. Morrison; illustrated in colors 
and covering just the ground that we are all so anxious to study. The 
Classification of the Hybrid Iris in Mr. Bertram H. Farr's catalogue, 
pages 3 to 18, are most helpful to the bewildered Iris student. In 
"In My Garden", by Eden Phillpots, the chapters on Iris are es- 
pecially helpful, while for the advanced Iriser, Mr. Wister's papers 
during the past summer in the English Garden Magazine on new Iris 
in the English and French Nurseries will be found alluring Ipiough 
tantalizing on account of Quarantine 37. 
The high water mark in Iris literature is reached in the large 
work on Iris (illustrated in color) by Mr. W. R. Dykes, who carried 
out the collecting and hybridizing begun by the late Sir Michael 
Foster. We dehght to see that in the catalogue of Miss Grace Sturte- 
vant's Iris Garden at Wellesley, Mass., she has used the Ridgeway 
Color Chart in the description of the standards and falls of her seedlings. 
It is hoped that the Iris Society will follow this method of identi- 
fication which makes ordering Iris from a catalogue a certain joy to 
the colour gardener. Nevertheless it is much safer, if you care for 
exact color, to go yourself to the nurseries at Iris time. May 15 th to 
June 15 th, and bring the plants home while in bloom. 
Mr. Clutton-Brock in his inimitable Studies in Gardening says: 
"There is something strange and remote in even so familiar a flower 
as the Iris Germanica. Its beauty, compared with the Rose, is like 
the beauty of the sea compared to the beauty of the earth. Every- 
thing about it seems mutable and unsubstantial, as if made for en- 
chantment and might vanish by the same means. Iris colors are 
liquid or cloudy. It has got its very name from a Beauty of the Sky. " 
"Leaves of the Iris are of lasting beauty; their upright growth hold 
a planting together. " 
German Iris are best planted in long drifts in front of feathery 
flowers, such as Hesperis; or in clumps in the center of the border 
associated with complimentary plants (i. e., those whose form of 
growth are a distinct contrast to the upright lines of Iris leaves) 
or in irregular oblong groups on the lawn, the colours kept distinct, 
the darker, taller varieties placed in the rear groups. In the border 
they should have low growing, later flowering plants in front of them, 
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