1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
221 
The Irises—The Netted Iris. 
Many flowers fail of appreciation because of the 
ease with which they can be produced, and their 
abundance. Take some of our common garden 
Irises, for example; their flowers for variety in 
color and beauty of texture, are really exquisite, 
tary, and of the form shown in the engraving, which 
is about the natural size. The color of the flowers 
is an indescribably rich blue, relieved by a blotch 
of golden yellow, the two making a contrast that is 
most charming; added to this beauty of color we 
have that of fragrance, which has been compared 
to that of violets, but seems to us, -while equally 
spring-like, quite peculiar. Messrs. W. & Co. in¬ 
figured in Oct. 1871), and a few others. Recently,, 
through the discoveries of travelers, especially in 
Western Asia, the number of tulips has been con¬ 
siderably increased, and there are now some 50 re¬ 
cognized species. Within a few years European, 
cultivators have manifested much interest in the 
species of tulips, and some of them are of great 
beauty, of the gorgeous type, while others are 
but they are cheap, a large plant can be bought for 
25 cents, which will give dozens of blooms, and 
then being perfectly hardy, it requires no care what¬ 
ever. Yet examine the individual flowers, and in 
all that constitutes beauty, they are quite equal to 
some of the rare plants, such as some Orchids, the 
plant of which costs §10 to start with, and which 
must be grown with the greatest care. Then some 
of the less common Irises, such as the Ibeiian, and 
the Netted, may be treated as common green¬ 
house or window plants, and their beauty enjoyed 
in advance of their time for blooming in the open 
air, and give the real lover of plants, often a per¬ 
son of moderate means, an opportunity to enjoy as 
much of floral beauty as can those whose wealth 
allows them to command the most costly of Orchid3 
and other rare plants. By no means would we dis¬ 
courage the culture of Orchids and such plants, for 
we wish that more persons of wealth would engage 
in it, but we would point out to those with slender 
purses, that there is within their reach quite as 
much of intrinsic beauty as the wealthy can com¬ 
mand. We were led to these remarks by a pot of 
the Netted Iris (Iris reticulata) sent to us this spring 
by Woolson & Co., Passaic, N. J., growers of hardy 
plants, to show us how well it forced in a com¬ 
mon cool greenhouse. This species, about which 
there has been considerable confusion of names, is 
a native of the Crimea; it belongs to the section 
with bulbous roots, and has very long, narrow, and 
pale-green, four-sided leaves. The flowers are soli¬ 
form us that this Iris is quite hardy with them, but 
being an exceedingly early bloomer, coming with 
the crocuses, or a little later, it may be caught by 
the late frosts. It forces with the greatest ease ; 
if plants are potted in the fail, and kept in a cool 
cellar, or in a common frame, they may be 
brought to a sunny window, where they will 
soon come into bloom, and give pleasure not only 
by their rich color, but by their charming fragrance. 
— -- mm « —-- -- 
Species of Tulip—Greig’s Tulip. 
No flowers make the garden so gay in spring with 
brilliant glow as the Tulips, with their crimson, scar¬ 
let, orange, yellow, and other positive colors. The 
dealers make two principal classes, the Dwarf or 
Early, and the Late or Show Tulips; aside from 
these they have a small class of Double varieties, 
which for a mass of brilliant color can hardly be 
equalled, and the quaint, odd Parrot tulips. 
The Early or dwarf varieties, including the popu¬ 
lar Due Van Thol, are derived from Tulipa suaveo- 
lens, of Southern Europe. The Late, Show, or 
Florists’ tulips, have T. Gesneriana of Russia for 
their parent; the Doubles and Parrots are supposed 
to be crosses of these and other species. Our cata¬ 
logues occasionally offer a few, not more than half 
a dozen all told, of distinct species, such as Tulipa 
cornuta, T. Gesneriana , the typical form of the 
Show tulip (both of these, with Parrot tulip, we 
equally attractive for the delicacy of both form and 
color, and these plants are likely to become popu¬ 
lar in the spring garden. The most striking of these 
recent introductions is Greig’s Tulip, Tulipa Greigi, 
so named in honor of General Greig, President of 
the “Imperial Russian Horticultural Union,” dis¬ 
covered a few years ago in Turkistan. We received, 
a few years ago, from the remarkable collection of 
Herr Max Leichtlin, of Baden Baden, Germany, a 
bulb of this, which has been exposed for two win¬ 
ters without protection, and fully confirms M. 
Leichtlin’s account of its great hardiness, according 
to whom, it, when its leaves are half grown, endures 
a temperature of zero without injury. This speci¬ 
men allows us to present an engraving, which, as 
we can not show color as well as form, fails to give 
the great brilliancy of both flower and foliage. The 
leaves of this are beautiful in themselves, being of a 
glaucous green, abundantly and distinctly blotched 
with rich purplish brown. The flower, which is 
broadly goblet-shaped, is from four to six inches in 
diameter; the general color is of the most vivid 
orange scarlet; at the base of the flower is a broad 
blotch, as near black as we ever find in flowers, 
which is bordered by a clearly defined margin of 
bright yellow. These colors produce a most bril¬ 
liant effect, and combined with the lasting charac¬ 
ter of its bloom, will make it much sought after. 
Such plants are of comparatively slow increase, and 
it will no doubt be some few years before this tulip 
will be generally offered by dealers. We are oeca- 
