A Few Notes on the Bearded Iris 
Once there was an Iris. And from it sprang other Irises, 
tall, short, lean, fat, early and late ones; taking their time they 
have dressed themselves in rainbow colors. Some of them have 
come down the ages to me and with me live on a comfortable 
hillside in Maryland. When the flowers of these Irises become 
fertilized they seed freely and every seed contains in its little 
brown sack a baby Iris different from any other. Most of these 
seedlings are worthless, but once in a while nature exerts her- 
self and with the help of bee or man she produces a great flower 
to which the man gives a name. Unfortunately many seedlings 
of little or no merit have been given names until now we are 
fairly swamped with them and the Iris section of a catalog 
bewilders one by its length. It is the aim of the American Iris 
Society to discard all inferior varieties but it will take time, 
for a nurseryman who has a large stock of those under the ban 
cannot be induced hastily to throw them away. I should like 
to see this Society exercise some control over the new varieties 
that are being put forth each year, at least to stamp the worthy 
ones with some mark of its approval. 
The first record of growing Irises from seed is over three 
hundred years old and in all these years many hundreds have 
been named. They all seem to be descended from two or three 
species, natives of the dry hills of Italy, south-eastern Europe 
and Asia Minor. About twenty years ago new species were 
found in the Mediterranean districts, Ricardi, from Palestine, 
Cypriana and M es op ot arnica, which in the hands of skillful 
hybridists have produced a wonderful new race. Unfortunately 
many of these hybrids yearn for the Asia Minor climate of their 
ancestors and all but refuse to live with me, though reports from 
California seem to indicate that they will thrive on the west 
coast. However, they are very valuable additions to Iris 
culture, being extremely beautiful when they do bloom and they 
are immensely useful to the hybridists who will undoubtedly be 
able to produce plants from them with the same flowers together 
with a strong constitution. 
I am looking more and more to American breeders for new 
Irises for my garden. Surely those born and bred in our own 
Atlantic States, not forgetting the District, will be able to endure 
the vagaries of our climate better than the exotics from the south 
of England and France. Moreover the Americans now that they 
have been given a lead are ready to challenge the world, for they 
have already produced some fine varieties that will stand in the 
first rank for many many years to come. 
The prices of the new Irises are discouraging. The breeders 
seem to vie with each other when they value their products. 
When Miss Sturtevant introduced Avalon, she asked twenty-five 
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