Apr. 20.—We had the pleasure of calling on one of Shanghai's foremost Iris experts last Sunday, When we arrived, he was busy pruning trees in his garden on Lucerne Road, but he found time to show us his fine collection of Bearded Irises, many of which were in full bloom, There were some beautiful varieties in the beds especially prepared for them and the growth was so healthy and strong that we wondered why more of these plants are not grown here, There must be few plants so accommodating as the bearded irises; they are not very hard to please; but they do repay growers for a little more care and attention and a better location than that generally provided for the old-fashioned "Blue Flag" Iris, They dislike organic manure; but they do not mind a little bone meal and, unlike the Japan-iris, they like lime. The gentleman we visited ig a real iris enthusiast: he takes pleasure in giving away his surplus plants and we shall not be very far away when. he is dividing his roots late in May. It is impossible to describe the flowers we saw on Sunday and at the same time do them justice: there are so many shades and coloured veins in sóme of them that the combinations of colour can only be termed remarkable, We even found it difficult to choose a favourite and it is with a feeling that we are being unfair to many of the others when we say that the variety "Souv, de Loetitia Mignaud" appealed to us more than the rest. The flower stems were four feet high and the flowers were large and such a lovely shade of blue, We counted twenty perfectly shaped, pure white flowers, on a single plant of "Purissima," while the top flowers on a plant of "Luaia" were five feet above groürid level. "Alto California," with its charming yellowish flowers, is worthy of special mention and a variety named "Happy Days" standing head and shoulders-above all others in a bed
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