Re: another iris book and more

Rima writes:
> On I. pseud, and I quote   "this was the iris. . .that guided Clovis I,
> King of the Franks, and his army across the Rhine when they were in
> retreat from the Goths.  They saw where the irises grew far into the
> water, reasoned that the water must be shallow there, and forded the
> river.  Later. . . he adopted the irisas his emblem. . . .by the twelfth
> century, his flower had become the fleur-de-lys, flower of Louis VII."
> Not bad for a legend about our favorite flower.

The legend, though charming, is probably apocryphal. However, if there is
any truth behind it at all, the river involved cannot be the Rhine, which
is unfordable (remember the bridge at Remagen?), but the Somme or another
of the shallow and sluggish streams of northern France.

Jeff Walters in northern Utah  (USDA Zone 4, Sunset Zone 2)
cwalters@digitalpla.net
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