June 22, 1912.] 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



415 



A FINE PLANT OF CLEMATIS. 



The Clematis illustrated in fig. 197 is growing 

 in the gardens of Mr. Frank Beard, Ivydene, 

 Coggeshall, Essex, who has kindly furnished the 

 following particulars : — The variety is Mrs. 

 Henry Wood, and the flowers are of a pale 

 mauve colour inside, the tint running up the 

 veins and passing to white. I purchased the 

 plant some 20 years ago whilst staying in 

 Huntingdon. It is growing against a malting wall 

 and measures about 16 feet in width, by 12 feet 

 in height. I counted over 400 blooms, and then 

 gave up the attempt at numbering them, for 

 some of the flowers overlapped each other three 

 and in some cases four deep. For several seasons 

 past blooms have been measured and found to be 

 9 inches in diameter, but owing to the enormous 

 number of flowers this year they are not more 

 than 8 to 8^ inches across. Hundreds of visitors, 

 including many professional and amateur gar- 



HOME CORRESPONDENCE. 



(The Editors do not hold themselves responsible for 

 the opinions expressed by correspondents.) 



Insurance Act.— The Insurance Act has been 

 so widely discussed in the daily newspapers that 

 it is probably needless to attempt to assist your 

 readers with any formal article on the subject. 

 I venture to think, however, that it may be 

 useful to impress upon gardeners the necessity 

 of joining, so far as may be possible, only those 

 approved societies (or local branches of ap- 

 proved societies) which include workers of as 

 healthy a class as themselves. Gardeners are 

 proverbially a temperate and well-balanced race, 

 and they should therefore avoid mixing them- 

 selves up for insurance purposes with the ordin- 

 ary town-workers, who, possibly, from sheer 

 force of circumstances, are less healthy and less 

 temperate than those who devote their lives to 



The Fruit Crop.— A Southern Grower is by 

 no means alone in his unhappy experiences of 

 this year's fruit crop. Never in my remembrance 

 has such a delightful early promise so completely 

 fallen to the ground. The early Apples have a 

 moderate crop, but the later-growing varieties 

 are bare of fruit. Pears gave a splendid promise, 

 but the young fruit now simply covers the 

 ground. Of Plums we have a moderate crop, but 

 the leaf-curling pest is rampant on both Plums 

 and Apples, including old and young trees. 

 Spraying has been expensive in labour during the 

 busy time, and the effect has been most dis- 

 appointing. Soft soap and paraffin emulsion killed 

 the aphides where it reached them, but, as your 

 correspondent suggests, it is simply impossible 

 to reach those which are within the curled leaf. 

 Gooseberries are good, Strawberries only 

 moderate ; Currants were all grubbed, the mite 

 making them worthless. May T express my appre- 

 ciation of the articles by A Southern Grower; 



* 



FlG. IQ7. CLEMATIS " MRS. HENRY WOOD," AT IVYDENE GARDENS, COGGESHALL ! COLOUR OF FLOWERS, PALE MAUVE. 



deners, have inspected the plant in bloom, and 

 all declare they have never seen anything 

 approaching it for beauty. The picture does not 

 show all the flowers, as many are hidden by 

 arches of rambleT Roses on either side. 



SCOTLAND. 



ABERDEEN MARKET GARDENERS' 



STANCES. 



A proposal having been made to shift the site 

 of the present stances held by the Aberdeen 

 Market Gardeners on Fridays on The Green, 

 a meeting of the gardeners has been held to con- 

 sider the question. The proposal is to move the 

 stands from their present position to one in the 

 centre of the street and about 9 feet from the 

 kerb. Ata meeting held in the Trades' Hall, 

 Aberdeen, it was unanimously decided that the 

 gardeners should not agree to the suggested 



removal. A committee was appointed to see into 

 tile matter. 



cultivating the eoil. The moral, of course, is : — 

 If a man is healthy and likely to live to a good 

 old age he should endeavour to select a society 

 which mainly comprises members as healthy as 

 himself. The <% touting for business M will, of 

 course, be very great, and many insurance agents 

 will doubtless cast longing looks on the healthy 

 race of horticulturists whose " good " lives may 

 help to counterbalance the inferior lives of their 

 factory-employed subscribers. Your Legal Corre- 

 spondent. 



Commercial Travellers and the Insur- 

 ance Act.-— May I be permitted to announce to 

 your traveller readers the formation of an ap- 

 proved society under the Act, for commercial 

 travellers only? It is very confidently antici- 

 pated that the results obtainable in this society 

 will be such as to add materially to the ordinary 

 benefits given by the Act, and for this reason all 

 men on the road who are affected by the Act are 

 invited to become members. Membership form 

 and full details will be sent on application. 

 Fred. Coysh, Secretary, b, Southampton Bow, 



London* 



they are so helpful, on account of their practical 

 character. 11. Williams, Redruth. 



my notice, 

 out of the 

 pot which 

 time. On 



A Curious Nesting Place. — With reference 

 to Mr. Gardner's note on a curious nesting place 

 (p. 379), a rather peculiar case has come under 



We observed a torn -tit flying in and 

 drainage hole in an inverted 12-inch 

 had not been disturbed for some 

 investigation, I found that the bird 

 had built a nest, principally of moss, reaching 

 from side to side of the pot, and in the 

 nest were 10 young birds. Unfortunately, 

 owing to circumstances over which I had no 

 control, the pot had to be removed, otherwise I 

 was curious to know how they would have con- 

 trived to get the young ones out of the pot. I 

 cannot see how the old birds could have carried 

 them out through the small hole in the top, and 

 they could hardly have taught the ten little 

 ones to fly in the confines of a 12-inch pot and 

 in partial darkness. I much regret that I was 

 unable to satisfy my curiosity. Frank A. 

 Edwards, Grayswood Place Gardens, Haslemere. 



