There is everywhere in Europe a great shortage of nursery stock 
and it will be a matter of many years before they can catch up with 
their former production. The fruit tree stocks, is but one-tenth of a 
crop this year, and the seedUngs have been quoted at $80 a thousand 
against a price of $5 a thousand a few years ago. The French catalogs 
continue to Hst large numbers of varieties which they have formerly 
grown, but it does not follow at all that they are growing them now. 
I tried last winter, for instance, to buy a collection of the large flowered 
Clematis and ordered them first from Turbat who Ksted about 50 
varieties. He wrote back politely that he was sorry but could not fill 
the order. Then I tried Georges Boucher, in Paris, but although he 
listed over 200 varieties he could not supply any and referred me to 
Leon Chenault, of Orleans. Thereupon I wrote M. Turbat again 
saying I heard that Chenault had these Clematis and would he get 
them for me and include them in his order, and I received a pohte 
reply intimating that if it were possible to get these Clematis in any 
nursery in France they would have secured them for me, but that 
every nursery which listed them, was unable to supply the plants. 
I would like to tell you something of the various plants I saw in 
various parts of France both during and after the war, and particu- 
larly during the two weeks after my discharge from the army, when I 
was free to travel where I wished. The first nursery I visited, was 
Jacotot of Dijon, the originator of the famous Gloire de Dijon Rose; 
a little nursery hardly an acre in extent having only three miserable 
Httle greenhouses, with the old-fashioned glass not more than six 
inches square, and when I was there in December 191 7 entirely cov- 
ered with straw mats to keep out the cold, for they had no artificial 
heat. Yet in these greenhouses I saw a better collection of plants 
than would be found in most American private greenhouses or florists. 
There was a large collection of ferns, many different varieties of 
Camelias, of Fuchias, Azahas, Rhododendrons, and many bulbs. 
It seems wonderful that from this little place should have come such 
a famous rose. 
I have already told you of the Turbat nurseries which I saw a year 
later, and from which have come many of our best Polyantha Roses, 
and many named Asters and Delphiniums. This nursery is one of 27 
large nurseries in the city of Orleans, nearly all of which are situated 
on one street, which is apparently built up as solidly as a city block. 
But the houses are only on the street front, and behind them nursery 
fields stretch out to a depth of about a thousand feet. The Turbat 
nursery is about 500 feet wide stretching behind the houses of the 
neighbors as well as behind the Turbat house, and here, thousands of 
tiny plants are growing in beds about 5 feet wide, the plants only 2 or 
3 inches apart, and the rows often not more than 5 inches apart, so 
17 
