The Garden Magazine, December, 1923] 
213 
which offer the plant are still as apt as not to refer to it quite 
absurdly as 1 . tectorum album! This is nearly as bad a mixture 
of forms as the still more popular phrase “gladioli bulbs", with 
which, let us hope, we shall not be afflicted always. 
Probably no Evansia is so easy to grow under so diverse 
climatic and cultural conditions as 1 . tectorum. In my Cali¬ 
fornia garden the typical blue form has so far done well in almost 
any exposure I have given it, from light shade to a fair amount of 
southern sun. 1 have not tried complete shade nor the very 
hot southwestern exposure, but 1 suspect it would stand quite 
a good deal of sun if not allowed to bake too completely dry 
during the summer period of drouth. It is a reasonably hardy 
species and said to be nearly as much at home in the diverse 
climate of the Middle States as it is 
here. It grows fairly well east even as 
far north as Massachusetts and Michi¬ 
gan. In England we are told that it 
thrives and increases at a good rate for 
the first year or two, but thereupon so ex¬ 
hausts the soil that it no longer blooms 
well unless transplanted into new ground. 
This is not in accord with my Califor¬ 
nia experience, where I find few Irises 
which can remain so long in the same 
spot without dividing or transplanting, 
and still do well. One patch has been 
in my garden now for some six years 
without being disturbed other than to 
pull out a few rhizomes desired for use 
elsewhere now and then, yet its florifer- 
ousness has increased rather than di¬ 
minished with the lapse of time. The 
foliage is, alas, not particularly attrac¬ 
tive, except for a short period during 
and just after the flowering season. 
It soon yellows in the fall and withers 
down entirely during the winter, 
which fact should be remembered if 
one is counting on a definite effect in 
planting. 
Unhappily it cannot be said that the beautiful white form is 
either as persistent or as simple of culture as the type. It is 
likewise to an amazing degree the predilection of that ill-assorted 
crew of piratical European slugs which are now the bane of all 
our gardens. Although I have repeatedly acquired plants of 
this tantalizing variety, both by importation and otherwise, 
one or all of these factors has inevitably operated toward the 
dwindling and final elimination of each hard-won treasure, 
notwithstanding the utmost care to prevent, with never yet a 
flower! I now once more have a few tiny plants, the product of 
seeds sent me by a charitable friend who has been more fortunate 
in his experience with the plant than 1 have, and as alba is said 
to come true to self-fertilized seed, I am hoping this time for a 
IRIS CRISTATA 
Though native of the mountain regions of Kentucky and Tennessee this diminutive Evansia is hardy in 
both Canada and California; here shown growing in the garden of Mr. F. Cleveland Morgan at Montreal 
IRIS GRACILIPES 
“A very elfin of the genus and 
certainly worth a great deal of 
effort to suit its needs,” this 
daintiest of all Irises is equally 
at home in the open glades of 
Japan and in the rock gardens 
of the Occident. Here shown 
in the Montreal (Canada) gar¬ 
den of Mr. F. Cleveland Morgan 
(see also page 25, September 
G. M., Louise Beebe Wilder’s 
rockery at Bronxville, N. Y.) 
real measure of success. 
Certainly the plant 
seems quite easy to start 
in this way. 
Besides being much 
dwarfer in growth, 1. 
tectorum differs dis¬ 
tinctly from I. japonica 
in habit as well. Al¬ 
though the rhizomes do 
really form a sort of 
stolon, they do not run 
out very far, and they 
soon branch so that the 
result is a relatively com¬ 
pact clump of sheaves. 
As nearly every mature 
sheaf throws a flowering 
stem, this again helps to 
