October 23, 1897. 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
121 
Coe’s Golden Drop Plums. — L. T .: Wrap each 
fruit separately in tissue paper, and lay them in a 
shallow box holding only one layer. Cover up and 
consign to a cool dry room. You will find that the 
fruit will then keep for a considerable time. 
Peaches. —P.: The rapid way in which the leaves 
have fallen from your Peaches is due in a great 
degree to the influence of the red spider. The leaves 
you sent bore unmistakeable traces of the pest. It 
is too late to do anything with the foliage now, but 
we should advise you to give the trees a good clean¬ 
ing after the winter pruning, especially the rougher 
bark of the old wood, in the crevices of which the 
spider will find a refuge. 
HEDYSARUM MULTIJUGUM. 
The French Honeysuckle (Hedysarum coronarium) 
is an old garden plant the cultivation of which for 
cut flowers seems to be reviving after a period of 
neglect. The heads of Pea-like flowers and the 
trimmed back thus keeping it in small compass for 
situations on the rockery, or for the filling of small 
beds on the grass, or even dry banks that it may be 
desirable to clothe with vegetation. The rosy- 
purple flowers are borne on long-stalked racemes 
that may be utilised for mixing with other cut 
flowers to the advantage of both. The shrub is 
prettiest and most ornamental, however, when seen 
as it grows naturally. 
-- 
UNITED HORTICULTURAL BENEFIT 
AND PROVIDENT SOCIETY. 
The eleventh anniversary dinner of this society, 
which was founded in 1865, was held on the 12th 
inst., in the Holborn Restaurant, London. Mr. H. 
B May, of Dyson’s Lane Nurseries, Upper Edmon¬ 
ton, presided over a record attendance of members 
and visitors, including many influential horti¬ 
culturists. 
After the toast of the Queen had been duly 
rendered, Mr. May rose to propose the " United 
" This society was founded by gardeners, is con¬ 
ducted by gardeners for the welfare of gardeners, 
and so great is my admiration for its objects and 
particularly its methods, that I venture to think it is 
unsurpassed, if indeed it is equalled, by any similar 
institution in the kingdom. And the advantages it 
offers its members, especially its aged members, are 
certainly most liberal, and a happy combination of a 
benefit society and savings bank. 
" It is not my intention to weary you with a long 
array of statistics, but with your permission I will 
mention a few particulars for the information of 
those unacquainted with the society. The benefited 
members are of two grades, those on the higher 
scale contributing gd. and the lower 6d. per week to 
the sick and deposit fund, 3s. and 2s. per annum to 
the benevolent fund, and 2s. 6d. per annum by each 
class to the management fund. They are entitled to 
sick pay at 18s. and 12s. per week respectively, for a 
period of twenty-six weeks, and gs. and 6s. for a 
further period of twenty-six weeks, and may then be 
transferred to the benevolent fund, and receive such 
Hedysarum multijugum. 
growth of the plant, however, is coarse and ungainly 
compared with H. multijugum, which was intro¬ 
duced from South Mongolia in 1883. It is a shrub 
of most graceful habit, with slender arching 
branches, and pinnate leaves, made up of ten to 
twenty pairs of small, oblong leaflets that have a 
feathery appearance compared with those of the 
French Honeysuckle. 
The accompanying illustration, prepared from a 
photograph sent us by Messrs. R. Veitch & S^n, 
Exeter, shows the feathery appearance of a large 
bush on one of their rockeries in the Royal Nursery, 
New North Road, Exeter. The time was allowed to 
slip past until the plant was nearly out of flower 
before the photograph was takeD, so that the latter 
hardly does justice to the plant as far as flowers are 
concerned, for it blooms most profusely, and the 
myriads of little twigs rising above the foliage are 
really the flower stalks of the fallen blooms, only a 
few of which still remain. The shrub is perfectly 
hardy not only at Exeter but much further north 
and east where the winters are colder than in the 
south-west of England. The shrub also fruits freely 
at Exeter and elsewhere, so that there is no diffi¬ 
culty in raising a stock of the species where a desire 
may exist for planting it in quantity. Though the 
shrub grows from 2 ft. to 5 ft. in height, it is more 
often seen as a dwarf spreading bush 18 in. to 2 ft. 
high, even in the case of plants of many years stand¬ 
ing. In early spring the whole bush may be 
Horticultural Benefit and Provident Society," and 
spoke as follows :— 
" Were those present this evening unassociated 
with the world of gardening, I might be tempted to 
portray in somewhat lurid tints the difficulties under 
which gardeners pursue their vocation, the uncer¬ 
tainty of employment, the many ills to which they 
are subject from climatic changes, and the inability 
which too frequently precludes them from making 
provision for that time of which Longfellow sings :— 
■ the common fate of all 
Into each life some rain must fall; 
Some days must be dark and dreary.' 
but composed as this assembly is of gardeners and 
their friends, to dilate upon such topics would be 
superfluous. 
“ It has been remarked that the position of the 
chairman at these anniversary dinners is a difficult 
one, there being so little for which to plead, and 
assuming that view to be substantially correct, on 
the other hand in surveying the beneficent work of 
the society, how much there is to admire ! The 
society has for its motto “ Unity is strength,” but its 
pioneers, mindful that stability is not obtained by 
numbers alone, have raised its superstructure on the 
enduring basis of self-help. Democratic in its consti¬ 
tution, it is a notable example of the good work that 
may be achieved by earnest men, and the substan¬ 
tial progress made is brilliant testimony of its appre¬ 
ciation by those for whose benefit it was established. 
weekly payment as the committee deem advisable. 
As an instance I may mention that a member who 
had exhausted his sick pay, has recently been granted 
5s. per week from that fund during the remainder of 
his illness. 
“ The balance to the credit of the sick fund after 
deducting payments to members, is annually divided 
pro rata, and placed to the credit of each member, 
and this sum with compound interest at three per 
cent., is carried forward until he reaches the age of 
seventy, when he is entitled to withdraw the 
amount standing to his credit. He may 
also be awarded a weekly sum from the 
benevolent fund at the discretion of the com¬ 
mittee, or in the event of death, the sum accu¬ 
mulated would be paid to his representatives. There 
is another provision I would direct your attention to, 
and one I think that is more generous than that of 
any other society with which 1 am acquainted; a 
member who has allowed his subscription to lapse, 
does not forfeit the amount, but is entitled on reach¬ 
ing the age of sixty to withdraw the sum standing to 
his credit at the time of his default, together with 
compound interest to date, or should he die before 
that age, it would be paid to his nominee. 
"That the Society is progressing favourably is 
evidenced by the fact that 63 new members have 
joined since the last annual dinner, the total number 
now on the books being 684 ; but probably nothing 
I can say by way of commendation will be more 
