46 
House & Garden 
The English iris, above and fo the left, 
is the oldest cultivated species in the 
western world. An excellent example 
of the best use of these splendid plants 
The true Iris Germanica is purple and 
yellow, and though closely reluted'to the 
so-called "German" hybrids, is not iden¬ 
tical. Hybrids above and at the right 
FLOWERS OF THE 
Iris flowers last from three to six days. Cut them before the petals 
unfold, to get the fulness thereof. Never bunch them in vases, but arrange 
singly, with a leaf or two, in a Japanese flower holder set in a flat, shallow 
bowl of water. This alone preserves the character of the flower and leaves. 
4 , 
-‘4 
1 1 
iX , 
N O flower is 
so happily 
n a m e d as this 
namesake of the 
rainbow goddess; 
for what but the 
rainbow’s self is 
of such color as 
the iris ? Look 
carefully and for 
a long time into 
the depths of al¬ 
most any common 
iris flower, and 
you will see these 
colors come out 
more and more, 
as it were — see 
the m glistening 
on it much as they I'lay on the filmy sur¬ 
face of a great bubble. Like the rainbow 
in very truth, here is a flower that shat¬ 
ters the shafts of light which fall upon 
it into countless tiny darts of ])ristine 
color, so that the entire range of the spec¬ 
trum’s scale plays under the vision of the 
close observer. 
That this is not true of every part of 
the flower I am perfectly willing to admit, 
but that it is true of the heart of the aver¬ 
Look long and carefully into the depths of an 
iris flotver and you will see there a wondroiLS 
play of rainbow colors 
age flower I think 
there is no doubt. 
Even the c o m - 
monest‘‘blue flag” 
reveals these 
treasures when 
carefully ob¬ 
served. And once 
you catch it, I 
warrant the iris 
will take a place 
in your thoughts 
and heart quite 
apart from all 
other flowers. 
For some rea¬ 
son, this rather 
large family of 
plants has been 
divided into races associated with certain 
races of human beings. We are all famil¬ 
iar, for example, with German iris; most 
of us have heard of Japanese iris; some 
recognize Spanish iris when they see it 
growing; to others the English iris is 
familiar; and most of us, I think, have 
heard of Florentine iris. 
Now considering that here is a family 
that practically girdles the globe in the 
north temperate zone—the greatest num- 
In their native land 
Japanese iris flow¬ 
ers attain a diam¬ 
eter of 12" or more 
Iris Sibirica. tall 
and free growing, 
has been in our 
gardens a century 
