There are joyous flowers of gold and royal blue, the Flower de Luce
(Flower of Louis) of regal France, and sombre flowers draped in deep
green and black and dusky purple, "The widow" (_Iris tuberosa_) and the
Chalcedonian Iris (_Iris Susiana_), taking its name from the Persian
Susa. _Iris Florentina_ by its powdered root yields the delicate violet
perfume orris, a corruption doubtless of Iris.
Many forms of root as well as blossom has the Iris, tuberous, bulbous,
fibrous, and if the rose may have a garden to itself, why may not the
Iris in combination with its sister lilies have one also? And when my
eyes rest upon a bed of these flowers or upon a single blossom, I long
to be a poet.
* * * * *
Now to begin: will your shady place yield you a bed four feet in width
by at least twenty in length? If so, set Barney to work with pick and
spade. The top, I take it, is old turf not good enough to use for
edging, so after removing this have it broken into bits and put in a
heap by itself. When the earth beneath is loosened, examine it
carefully.
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