I'RIS XIPHIOI'DES. 
XIPHIUM-LIKE IRIS. 
Class. 
TRIANDRTA. 
Order. 
MONOGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
IRIDACEiE. 
Native of 
Spain. 
Height. 
2 feet. 
Flowers in 
July. 
Duration. 
Perennial. 
Introduced 
in 1517. 
No. 1203. 
Iris, the Greek name of the rainbow, is aptly 
enough applied to the plants which it distinguishes. 
This species of Iris has long been known in our 
gardens as the English Iris, although a native of 
Spain and the Pyrenees. This misnomer seems to 
have originated with the Dutch florists, who first 
received it from England, and were unconscious of 
England not possessing it as an indigenous plant, 
but being indebted for it to the south of Europe. The 
Dutch florists, a hundred years ago, as at the pre- 
sent day, were the bulb growers for England, and 
regularly transmitted to English dealers what they 
called English Irises, and hereby has this name been 
perpetuated ; assisted, indeed, by our early botan- 
ists, who, being deceived themselves, unwittingly 
assisted in deceiving others. 
The immense variety displayed in the flowers of 
this plant, by their various combinations of colours, 
has obtained for it an attention in Holland, which 
has placed it in the class of florist’s flowers, and few 
there are which afford so splendid a show as Iris 
Xiphioides. A Paris correspondent of the Garden- 
er’s Chronicle, (1841, p. 382), says “ There are many 
