i6o HERBACEOUS GARDEN 
sun and a south aspect suits them best ; but yet 
they have been known to do well in a shady 
and Father damp border ; and although they 
will do their best to grow and bloom in a 
poor soil, and succeed better than most plants 
in the attempt, they require a well-dug and 
manured border to really do them justice. 
Should anyone succeed in getting together 
a really representative collection, he can obtain 
bloom for nine months in the year. 
They are most useful as cut flowers ; for, 
picked in bud, they travel well, and open in 
water, sometimes with more perfect blooms 
than when exposed to climatic conditions of 
wind and rain out of doors. 
Unlike the paeony, they are cheap enough 
for a poor man’s garden, and of endless interest 
to the collector or botanist, while their beauty 
is undeniable. Every shade and colour is 
represented, and blue, purple, lilac, yellow, 
brown, bronze, cream, white, crimson, pink, 
green, and even black are found. Several of 
these are deliciously scented : Iris reticulata , 
with the fragrance of violets ; Iris graminea , 
with that of a ripe apricot or plum ; while Iris 
pallida has a perfectly indescribable scent 
which makes one long to go on smelling it till 
one can find out of what it is reminiscent — is 
