The Spring Iris: Lesson 1

Glorious child of Sun and Rain,
Rising brave and beautiful
When they command, tho‚ wild winds strain‚
Teach me to be dutiful. 

 

A wild Iris in North America is sometimes pale yellow.

       One of the early Spring flowers that is an old friend of yours is the Iris. Perhaps you call her the Flag, but as Iris, she is known to all the World.
       Iris today has the same way of growing that she had a long, long time ago. You have seen her dark leaves come up during the early rains. If you live near San Francisco, you see her leaves making little dark green islands in the sea of pale grass that covers those hills. 
       Look at the Iris leaf. It is shaped like a sword. It is long and narrow and comes to a point. It cuts its way through the ground. It is smooth and stands up straight. All the veins run up and down. Any rain drops that fall on it find nothing to hold on to, as they do on a geranium leaf. They just slip right down to the ground as if the leaf were a slide.
       They have to fall outside the plant too. See how the Iris leaves fold over each other and then over the stem. It would take a strong raindrop indeed to force its way between them and to get to the flower stalk.
       Look at the green covering of the flower bud. See, it is lined with this same white oiled silk, of an even finer grade. Notice that one of these green overcoats is around the flower stalk where it leaves the stem and a thinner overcoat is around each flower bud. Iris is taking no chances of letting wet in to harm her seed-making parts.
       Try to pull up some leaves. Can you do it? Iris makes her parts strong so that the cold of winter cannot hurt them. If you dig down, you will find the root a good storehouse of food for young plants. You can transplant it to your own garden. Perhaps you have some of its cultivated sisters there now.
       Take a flower stalk between your fingers. Run your fingers around it. How smooth it feels. There is not the tiniest angle to it or any channel or any hairs. Feel how it turns in your fingers. It can turn any way without breaking. Just after dawn, it bows ''Good Morning'' to the newly risen Sun in the East. In the evening it bows ''Good Night'' to old Father Sun in the West. What pretty manners!

The Wild Iris in Northern California by Scott Riddle.

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