Mr. L. B. Case, Richmond, Ind., writes: "During the past year or two I have often mused over the too-common (?) forms of double-flowering dwarf almonds in common cultivation; viz., the rose-colored and white varieties. Professor Gray, in his Field Botany, says: 'prunus nana, * * * handsome rose-colored (or by variation white), usually full-double flowers,' etc. - seemingly acknowledging only one species. Wood says, 'Prunus nana, dwarf single-flowering almond, and Prunus lanceolata, dwarf double-flowering almond, both from Russia.' Sir Joseph Paxton says, 'Amygdalus nana, flowers red, 2 feet high, from Russia,' and ' Amygdalus Si-berica, flowers red, 6 feet, from Russia;' also, ' Armeniaca Siberica, flowers pink, 6 feet, from Siberia.' Again, the Treasury of Botany says, 'Prunus Siberica is like a small apricot, only smaller, and Prunus sinensis a small greenhouse shrub, with double white flowers.' Now some of our best-informed and most experienced nurserymen offer Prunus Japonica multiplex, a double dwarf rose almond, and Prunus sinensis, the double dwarf white almond, and perhaps many others name other varieties or synonyms.

I have on my lawn an ordinary double-flowering rose-colored variety, probably Prunus nana, and also a form of the white variety, with double white flowers - a little later to bloom in the spring, and the flowers set closely together along the branches, producing at least one-third more bloom than the old variety. Again, it seems to ripen its foliage soonest in fall, turning to a dark, bronzy crimson. I enclose a small branch with this. Do you think, from this imperfect description, the two forms are of the same species (P. nana)? Of course Sir Joseph Paxton's Amygdalus nana and Siberica should read, according to our nomenclature, Prunus nana and Siberica; but what is his Armeniaca Siberica? Is it under cultivation in America, and where can I get it? I should also be very glad to get Wood's single-flowering form, as I have never seen it; but I do not find it offered by any nurseryman. How many of these forms can be reduced to a few? I know that many of the readers of the Monthly would be very much pleased to know the synonyms, and also to know just what we are growing.

For myself, I most sincerely wish you would do so, and then I hope that anyone having the scarcer varieties will offer them in the advertising department of the Monthly, so that we all can know where to procure authentic specimens; for they are certainly a most welcome and meritorious class of shrubs for a large lawn, cemetery or park, to mass with other shrubs. True, the old red variety suckers very badly (the white one in my yard does not), but no one can expect anything in the shrub or plant line to flourish and prove fully satisfactory without some attention and labor, and why not devote the same amount of time in removing suckers from around an almond that would be necessary to cultivate any other plant or shrub.

" One more question, and I will stop. Does not the fruit of Prunus fasciculata of Utah belong to this section of the genus Prunus? It would probably not prove hardy this far north, but I have often wondered if it would not add new life and vigor to the peach - perhaps by hybridizing. Certainly as a stock to bud upon in our Southern States, I imagine that many of our short-lived trees of foreign origin could be materially benefited by infusing into them some of our native blood, i. e., vitality.

"The Gardeners Chronicle for September, 1st, 1883, just received, on page 266 says, 'Prunus triloba was first described by Dr. Lindley, in the Gardeners Chronicle for 1857.' I have no idea where I could obtain access to it. Is it in any of the public libraries of Philadelphia? "

[A full set of the Gardeners' Chronicle is in the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia - as are almost all works needed for botanical references.

So far as we can judge by the leaves of two double forms, and without any fruit, we should say the double white and double pink dwarf almond are both forms of Amygdalus nana. We have never seen authentic specimens of Amygdalus Sibirica of Loddiges. Prunus fasciculata, of California and Utah, is a dwarfish plant, very nearly allied to the true almond.

About Philadelphia the dwarf almond is so much attacked by a disease similar in its sudden ' results to the fire blight in the pear, that it is not as popular as it used to be. - Ed. G. M.]