A correspondent says: "What is the meaning of the following from the catalogue of Ellwanger & Barry? 'Prunus spi-nosa, var. flore-pleno, - a beautiful small tree or large shrub from Japan, covered in spring with small, double, daisy-like, white flowers, succeeded by small, dark, purple fruit.' I had always understood Prunus spinosa to be the common sloe, of the English hedge rows, and not a Japanese plant; and that plants with double flowers never made fruit".

[The Sloe is a native of Japan, as well as of the North of Europe, and a double one may have been introduced as well from there as from Europe. There has been a double Sloe under culture for the past fifty years in European gardens, but we cannot say whether this from Japan is like unto it or not. There may be different kinds of double flowers, and it is just here the bother with Latin names for mere garden varieties comes in. A mere "flore-pleno" would not be new. As to double flowers producing fruit, our correspondent is right in the main, but sometimes all the stamens and pistils are not changed to petals, and fruit may then follow. The double apple, double peach, double roses, double petunias and double carnations often produce seed. - Ed. G. M ]