I am so late with my letter to you this month that it may miss the mail (shall be frightfully disappointed if it does, because there is so much to tell you), however it shall go forth and perhaps the Editor will not be as exacting as the postal authorities, and at the last minute find a little niche for it somewhere in the Home Beautiful. (Well, here it is -- Ed H.B.)

What a lucky season it has been for the flowering apples; the gales came just a few days before they were fully open, and consequently we have been spared the heart-breaking sight of last year when the wind never ceased until it had stripped almost every petal from the trees.

ANOTHER APPLE STORY

Oh: I'm immensely proud of Malus 'Sonning'. This year it is more than ever evident that it is the clearest of all the wine-red varieties. Malus floribunda purpurea pales into insignificance beside it. There is, of course, no justification for my pride, for it was just one of those flukes of Nature! Indeed I was very nearly instrumental in the destruction of the original plant. Here is its history. A seedling came up beneath one of the Malus fl. purpureas, and at that time there were not many plants available for the development of the landscape at Sonning, and it was planned out on an important point. Years went by and the tree grew and grew, but never flowered. The foliage was conspicuously fine, being a luscious reddish bronze, but thinking how foolish it was to plant a seedling in such a position, it was decided to replace it with something that would flower, and be worthy of the position. However, like many another job, there 'never was time', and so it remained until the year it surprised us with a small crop of blooms of a clear rich colour. And now we feel confident in declaring it to be infinitely superior to purpurea, and earlier than Aldenhamensis.