88 
House & Garden 
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Wash and Bathe in Running Water 
A Shower Over Your Tub 
This is made easy with the 
Speakman Deshler Bath Fixture 
Their is no round-about fitting or cutting of studding 
when the Deshler Bath Fixture is used. It has by-pass 
valves. In the installation of any Speakman shower— 
either Mixometer or Compression-Valve type over a built- 
in tub — the Deshler Bath Fixture saves many nipples, 
fittings and chances of leak. 
And then there is the advantage of Hi-Seat Valves. The 
seats are 1 3 /q " from the face of the wall — easily exam¬ 
ined at any time. There are seven other features about 
these Hi-Seat Valves (patented). 
Your plumber will give you Speakman folders. “Three 
Handles in the Wall” and “Connecting the Shower” tell 
you about the Deshler Bath Fixture and Hi-Seat Valves. 
Other Speakman folders feature Mixometer and Com¬ 
pression-Valve Showers. If your plumber is out of any of 
these folders write us. 
SPEAKMAN COMPANY 
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 
Japanese iris is a lover of moisture, and in that differs 
from the bearded or Pogoniris, which loves a dry, hot 
location 
Flowers of the Rainbow 
(Continued from page 40) 
dium sized but brilliantly colored flow¬ 
ers, effective as groups rather than as 
individual blossoms. The Japanese 
irises are beyond the occidental imagi¬ 
nation. They are of every combination 
of blue, white and yellow, gigantic flat 
flowers 7" or more in diameter, and 
barbarically gorgeous. Their relative 
lack of popularity is not due to their 
unworthiness, but in part to the fact 
that they are not quite so easy of cul¬ 
tivation as are the bearded iris, and in 
part to the fact that their nomenclature 
is absolutely chaotic. In many cata¬ 
logues they are listed under Japanese 
names which are meaningless, and which 
one strongly suspects of having been 
made in America. One of the important 
tasks ahead of the Iris Society is the 
straightening out of the names of these 
plants. At present the buyer has no 
means of getting comparative estimates 
of value, as it is rare for two dealers to 
list the same names. There are a few 
others of the Apogon group to be had of 
American dealers, one the tall, yellow 
English semi-aquatic, Iris Pseudacorus. 
Among other miscellaneous irises cul¬ 
tivated in the United States are a few in 
the Evansia group. These are char¬ 
acterized by a crest on the falls, replac¬ 
ing the beard of the Pogoniris group. 
Two Evansia irises commonly listed are 
Cristata, a tiny dwarf blue variety, three 
inches in height and suitable for rock 
gardens, and tectorum in both blue and 
white, a beautiful species from the 
Orient, where it is grown on the 
thatched roofs of cottages. The tec¬ 
torum is said to be hardy, with some 
winter protection, south of New York, 
but the writer has failed completely in 
his attempts to carry it through a New 
Hampshire winter. 
The remaining irises in cultivation in 
America are confined to the Xiphion or 
bulbous iris groups. Very few of these 
bulbs are now available however, 
though where they can be had, they are 
well worth securing. The flowers are 
beardless, come in many combinations 
of blue, yellow, and white, and seem 
very large in contrast with the slender, 
grass-like foliage. Newly sprouting 
plants in spring look like onions. There 
are two groups of these bulbous irises 
most commonly cultivated, one called 
Spanish iris and the other called English 
iris. The latter are the larger and more 
robust. Both have relatively flat flow¬ 
ers, wide spreading and somewhat spi- 
derish in effect, due to the fact that in 
the irises the standards are narrow and 
spreading, and the petaloid style arms 
are more prominently developed than 
in the bearded iris. There are no irises, 
so dainty, so delicate and so graceful as 
the Spanish and English irises. One 
naturally wonders why flowers so attrac¬ 
tive should be so neglected. The present 
quarantine law accounts for the phe¬ 
nomenon in the case of the bulbous 
irises. American growers have depended 
upon Holland for their supply of bulbs 
and now the bulbs are forbidden entry. 
The Regelia and Oncocyclus groups 
contain what are generally admitted to 
be the most beautiful irises in the world, 
and one of them, Iris Lorteti is one of 
the most famous, a combination of 
cream, crimson, white and violet, 7" 
across, with standards 5" high. But 
these plants are desert species from the 
mountains of Asia Minor, and defy cul¬ 
tivation in Europe and America. 
The beginner with irises finds it neces¬ 
sary to understand the structure of the 
individual flower, for the terms, falls, 
standards and style arms occur con¬ 
stantly in all descriptions of the plants. 
The typical iris blossom consists of a 
circle of six petals known collectively 
as the perianth. These petals are united 
at their bases into a relatively long and 
narrow tube, and below this there is 
the green ovary, which, after flowering 
time, becomes the seed pod. Three of 
the six petals stand outright or hang 
down, and are known as the falls. The 
other six are upright and are called the 
standards. There are three stamens, 
each one hidden under one of the three, 
arching, ribbon-.- shaped, petal - like 
branches of the style. The style 
branches press close down, each upon a 
fall, and between the two is the stamen. 
The stigma is transverse membraneous 
growth on the under side of the style 
arm near its extremity, like a little pro¬ 
jecting shelf. 
All these flower parts are ingeniously 
arranged to facilitate cross fertilization 
by insects. The bee alights on one of 
the falls, which serve as convenient land¬ 
ing stages for aerial insect visitors, and 
enters the flower in search of honey by 
burrowing in under the overhanging 
style arm. He disappears completely 
from view, but emerges a moment or 
two later with his back well dusted with 
pollen from the overhanging anther of 
the stamen. When he enters the next 
flower, some of this pollen is scraped 
from his back by the stigma of that 
blossom, and the fertilization is accom¬ 
plished. 
An impression is more or less preval¬ 
ent among those who have not grown 
them that irises demand water, or at 
least moist soil for their successful cul¬ 
ture. When I set out my first bearded 
irises I was instructed by a friend who 
had had much more gardening experi¬ 
ence than I, to set the plants immedi¬ 
ately in front of the rainspouts at the 
corners of the house that they might 
be deluged each time it rained, with the 
moisture they craved. Those of that 
first lot of irises which still survive owe 
(C ontinued on page 90) 
