A PRECOCIOUS IRIS.
One of the most pictorial and decorative of garden flowers —the Iris Stylosa—has this year surprised and charmed its votaries. It has been flowering freely for some weeks, a month, even two months before its time. I remember recommending the mingling of this mauve Iris and the winter Jessamine in bowls as a January decoration. Both flowers began blossoming freely at the opening of this November. Irises may be grown in every single month of the year ; and of them all stylosa is one of the most individual—and, some hold, the most fickle. It may flower freely or refuse alto- gether. Some gardeners perhaps exaggerate its liking for rubble. Shelter and yet sun, plentiful lime but not exclusive lime, seem to be the secret ; and many growers find it of advantage to cut the leaves enough to admit more sunshine to the flowering stems. It is a necessity in any continuous garden. This November has many surprises. Among them a swallow was seen by a number of credible witnesses in the neighbourhood of Ross on November 10th.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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