THE IRIS. 
241 
THE IRIS. 
WITH - AN ILLUSTRATION OF I. XIPHIOIDES. 
The beautiful genus to which the subject of our accompanying 
plate belongs is composed of an assemblage of herbaceous, tube¬ 
rous, and bulbous-rooted plants common throughout Europe, and 
sparingly known in America. In cultivation, the greater part 
are of the hardiest character, thriving under the drip of trees, 
and, in fact, requiring more trouble to keep them within bounds, 
than to encourage them to grow. Such as these are highly useful 
for ornamenting outlying shrubberies, and, from the circumstance 
of most of them delighting in damp situations, are appropriate 
occupants of the margins of lakes or other pieces of water ; this 
group of the family is distinguished by rather large flag-like 
foliage and tuberous roots, or rather rhizomas; their flowers 
are, for the most part, large and gaily coloured, and are produced 
in rapid succession for a considerable period. The common 
I. germanica and pallida may be regarded as the type of this 
portion of the genus, though it contains some others of a more 
valuable character. The highly curious and very beautiful Iris 
susiana, must be classed with them, as also the pretty little 
bifora, subifora, and cristata, together with some others of 
similar habit highly deserving introduction to the flower garden 
as aids in the beginning of summer. 
A second portion of the genus consists of a smaller number of 
bulbous-rooted plants with rigid channeled leaves, more rush- 
like than the former, and fully equal to them in the beauty of 
their flowers, possessing, at the same time, a far greater diversity 
of colour, by reason of two or three of the species having the 
habit of yielding seminal varieties which differ one from another, 
and from their parent; to this class I. xiphioides belongs. A 
third, and still more limited number, have the habit of the first- 
mentioned group, but are tender, or, at least, require to be grown 
in a greenhouse to cause them to flower well; these are I. chi- 
nensis , orienialis , and fimbriaia. I. persica, though a bulbous 
species, and naturally hardy, from the early period at which it 
blooms, is usually cultivated in a pot, and esteemed as an orna- 
21 
ii. 
