SHAKESPEARE'S GARDEN 
45 
of one of the most beautiful orders of plants, which 
as seen in our gardens to-day are no mean rivals of 
the Orchidaceae. But not only are they beautiful, not 
only is it 
The vagabond flag upon the stream 
(Antony and Cleopatra , I. iv. 45); 
but the iris or flag, which you will, has been generally 
considered the prototype of the fleur-de-lis, to which 
Shakespeare makes frequent allusion. As a flower, 
it is one of those desired by Perdita (Whiter s Tale, 
IV. iv. 125) : 
Bold oxlips and 
The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds, 
The flower-de-luce being one ! O, these I lack 
To make you garlands of. 
Before we consider the heraldic quotations in 
which the poet speaks of the flower, it may be as 
well to see what species were known in the Eliza¬ 
bethan age, and, as usual, we turn to Gerard’s 
garden, where we should have been able to gather 
the dwarf I. pumila, the beautiful susiana , jlorentina, 
bijlora, variegata, and germanica, the foster-mother 
of our innumerable German irises, ranging in colour 
from snowy white to most lurid bronzes : Sub-biflora, 
pallida, xiphioides, Lusitanica, graminea, and tuberosa, 
all of which in a thousand interchanging shades are 
grown to-day. 
Returning to the heraldry of the flower, we find 
such quotations as this in 1 Henry VL, I. i. 80, 
Cropped are the flower-de-luces in your arms ; 
Of England’s coat one half is cast away, 
in reference to the ruinous losses in France at the 
death of Henry V. 
And again in the same play (I. ii. 99)* speaking of 
