Tall Bearded Iris (fleur-de-lis) a flower of songs; names, classification, structure, planting, care, enemies, propagation, hybridism, shipping, uses

CHAPTER I

The Iris in Song

HE IRIS has long been a flower of song. Ever since the early days we find it in the poet's lays.

Iris, which Drilon water feedes,

And Narons bancke with other weedes.

Nicander: Treacles. (2d Cent. B. C.) Tr. by John Gerarde.

For whom the fruitage of this strain, my Muse, And who among the bards hath made this wreath? Meleager wove it, and by his weaving gives For keepsake to most noble Diocles. Here many lilies are of Anyte,

Vine of Simonides, and twisted in

Nossis, thine Iris flower that breathes of Myrrh,



And Hegesippus' maddening grape-cluster He set therein, and Persus' scented Flag

*

And this gracious coronal of song

Be for all such as love these holy things.

Meleager: Wreath of Song, (ist Cent. B. C.) Tr. by W. M. Hardinge.

Under so fair a heaven as I describe, The four and twenty Elders, two by two, Came on incoronate with Flower-de-luce.

Dante: Purgatorio.

Heil moder, heil mayden, heil heavenly queen, ***** Heil fairer than the Flour-de-lys.

Anon.: Ancient Hymn to the Virgin.

A Friar there was, a wantowne and a merye, * * * * *

His nekke whit was as a Flour delys.

Chaucer: Canterbury Tales.

Than the riche Floure-de-lice Wan thare ful litill prise, Fast he fled for ferde.

Minot: Batyl of Banocburn. (ifih Century.)



Lo! that spotless creature of grace, so gentle, so small, so winsomely lithe, riseth up in her royal array— a precious thing with pearls bedight. Favored mortals there might see choicest pearls of sovereign price, when all as fresh as a Fleur-de-lys she came adown that bank.

Anon.: Pearl, (ifoh Century.}

The Naids and the nymphs extremely overjoyed, And on the winding banks all busily employed, Upon this joyous day, some dainty chaplets twine:

Thus having told you how the bridgroom Thames was drest, I'll show you how the bride fair Iris was invest;

Sweet marjoram, with her like sweet basil rare for smell, With many a flower, whose name were now too long to tell; And rarely with the rest, the goodly Fleur-de-lis.

Drayton: Polyolbion.

Bring rich carnations, Flower-de-luces, lilies.

Ben Jonson: Pan's Anniversary.

The Flower-de-luce forth spread his heavenly hue.

Gawain Douglas: Veranl Season.



Then called she [Dame Nature] all Flowers that grew in field, *****

Upon the awful Thistle she beheld,

*****

And said, "In field go forth and fend the lave, *****

And let no Nettle vile, and full of vice, Her fellow to the goodly Fleur-de-lis."

Dunbar: The Thistle and the Rose.

Behold, O man, that toilsome pains dost take, The flow'rs, the field, and all that pleasant grows,

The lily, lady of the flow'ring field, The Flower-de-luce, her lovely paramour, Bid thee to them thy fruitless labors yield, And soon leave off this toilsome weary stoure.

Spenser: Fairy Queen.

The garden like a lady fair was cut,

That lay as if she slumbered in delight,

And to the open skies her eyes did shut;

The azure fields of heaven were 'sembled right

In a large round set with flow'rs of light;

The Flowers-de-Luce and the round sparks of dew

That hung upon their azure leaves, did show

Like twinkling stars that sparkle in the ev'ning blue.

Fletcher: The Garden



The first course thus serv'd next follow'd on The faiere nobles, ushering Oberon, Their mighty king, a prince of subtill powre, Cladd in a sute of speckled gilliflowre,

His cloake was of the velvet flowers, and lynde With Flowre-de-lices of the choicest kinde.

Wm. Browne: Britannia 1 s Pastorals.

I am the light fantastic queen of flowers;

I weave the silken fringe that, as a vest,

Mantles the Fleur-de-lis in glossy down,

I scatter gold spots on its open breast,

And lift in slender points of dew its crown.

I am the light fantastic queen of flowers,

My bed is in the bosom of a rose

And there I sweetly dream the moonlight hours,

While vermiel curtains round my pillows close.

Percival: The Queen of Flowers.

My spaniel, prettiest of his race..