MASSING OF DISTINCT SPECIES 167 
unless their special needs have been carefully 
studied. 
As they come from a hot, dry climate, the 
only way to approach the climatic conditions 
they require is to place glass lights or frames 
over them directly they have finished flower- 
ing, so as to ensure them a thorough baking 
and drying off in the sun. Their quaint shape 
and network of black lines on a greyish ground, 
as in Susiana, or black lines on a rose-coloured 
ground as in Sortelli, are unique. 
As the Oncocyclus is the most difficult to 
grow, so is the Spanish or Iris Xiphium the 
easiest and cheapest, and as beautiful as any. 
For massing or in long borders it is unsur- 
passed, and its only drawback is the untidiness 
of its foliage when the flower is over. Some 
of the new varieties are L’unique, dark and 
light blue ; King of the Whites, very large ; 
Souvenir, pale blue and French grey ; and 
Walter Ware, straw-coloured. 
The English iris, xiphioides , flowers a fort- 
night later than the Spanish, and has much 
larger and heavier-petalled flowers, more like 
the Japanese iris, and is not a bad substitute 
where that latter will not succeed, for the 
English iris will grow anywhere. Lilacina is 
perhaps the loveliest, with large flowers of 
