188 THE FLOEIST AND POMOLOGIST. [ August, 



likewise show good crops, but the young shoots are all sadly infested with aphides,, 

 which require constant attention to keep them under. A quantity of cordons on 

 the French paradise stock was planted here last year, and these are now bearing 

 nice crops. Apricots on the open walls are nearly everywhere a failure, and 

 even where the trees were protected by glass lights, the crop is only a half one. 



Plums are a very thin crop, except on pot-trees grown on a heated glass- 

 ■covered wall. Cherries on standards and also on walls have borne good crops. 

 Currants, red, white, and black, are all bearing heavy crops ; but I have never 

 seen the foliage before so covered with aphis. Every breeze is now whirling the 

 leaves off, all the bushes being sucked nearly dry by this insect pest, and of 

 ■course the fruit will be small and flavourless. This has only occurred where the 

 bushes have been grown close together, for those grown in rows, or singly as 

 standards, have partly escaped. Gooseberries this year are a very abundant crop 

 here, and free from caterpillars. Strawberries are cropping very unevenly. 

 Some kinds that were well watered during the dry hot weather last summer, 

 such as Ingram's Prince of "Wales, President, Sir J. Paxton, Rivers' Eliza, British 

 Queen, Dr. Hogg, and Cockscomb, are bearing heavy crops. Black Prince 

 suffered very much last year from the dry summer, and crops badly this year ; 

 but on account of its earliness, it cannot yet be discarded from a collection. I find 

 that the most generally useful strawberries grown are Rivers' Eliza and Vicomtesse 

 Hericart de Thury, for they can always be depended upon for bearing well on 

 all soils. Another old sort I find the best of all for growing for preserving, 

 namely, the Grove-End or Old Scarlet ; this bears abundantly with me this year. 

 Raspberries are a plentiful crop, and the same with Filberts. 



Welbeclc. William Tillesy. 



NEW FLORISTS' FLOWERS. 



' OMETHESTG more than two years ago, Mr. Cripps, of Tunbridge Wells, 

 produced, at one of the meetings of the Royal Horticultural Society, some 

 fine seedlings obtained from Clematis lanuginosa. They have not as yet 

 been distributed, — it is said from the difficulty of propagating them. At 

 the meeting of the Floral Committee, on the 15th of June, Mr. Cripps produced a 

 very fine double Clematis, the origin of which was not stated ; it was named 

 Excelsior, and was of a greyish-blue colour, with a kind of flame of reddish- 

 purple along the centre of each sepal, while the centre of the flowers was anemone- 

 like, composed of a bunch of small florets of the same greyish hue. It is perhaps 

 •open to doubt whether, when it is propagated, it will continue to produce this 

 double form ; but should it do so, it will be a valuable addition to these grand 

 decorative plants. Mr. Cripps also had Clematis Lady Cicely Nevill, a large 

 white flower, apparently a seedling from C. lanuginosa, but with eight large and 

 somewhat long and flimsy sepals, instead of the six generally borne by the supposed 

 parent. The double variety was awarded a First-Class Certificate. 



