THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



work in nine volumes is to be recom- 

 mended. But the hi^h-priced works 

 on ferns are all good, so there is not 

 much need to recommend any one in 

 particular. It is amnn? the ch^ap 

 volumes, of which dozens have been 



publisher!, that there is so large a 

 preponderance of rubbish, and it was 

 to caution our friends against these 

 that I thought it advisable to 

 add this remark ou the subject of 

 books. 



TRICKERIES OF THE SEED TRADE. 



When Samson sent the firebrands 

 bv a novel mode of transit among the 

 sheaves of the Philistines, he was at 

 least pretty certain th»t none would 

 suffer thereby but the avowed enemies 

 of his country. If we send a similar 

 message, though on the smallest scale 

 imaginable, among the growers and 

 vendors of seeds, we may do mischief 

 to the innocent as well as the guilty ; 

 for it must be admitted that dealers 

 in seeds are not all of them enemies 

 to horticulture. Those seedsmen 

 must be counted as enemies wno mis- 

 describe their goods, who charge 

 exorbitant prices on the plea of sup- 

 plying something unique, but which 

 turns out to be commonplace, and 

 who mix dead seeds with live ones. 

 for the purpose of increasing the 

 bulk of packets. We know it is only 

 a certain clnss of dealers who sys- 

 tematically cheat, and a certain class 

 of customers who are systematically 

 cheated. Those who have had some 

 experience in horticulture have gene- 

 rally learnt prudence by the most 

 effectual of methods — that is, by pay- 

 ing for it — and their best remembered 

 lessons have generally been in some 

 way connected with the purchase of 

 seeds. 



As we have a general rather than 

 a particular case, and the subject 

 occurs to us because now is the com- 

 mencement of the busy season in the 

 seed-trade, we will at once advise our 

 readers to be verv wary how they 

 make purchases of Mr. A., B., or C.'s 

 champion pea*, indescribable cucum- 

 bers, or infallible potatoes. There is 

 scarcely a small seedsman in the 

 country who has not an early pea, a 

 prolific bean, an unassailable potato 

 of his own. which no one else can sup- 

 ply, and which no other variety can 



equal. Men who dispense their few 

 bushels of peas and beans during the 

 spring season will coolly impose on 

 their credulous customers old and 

 disused varieties as of their own rais- 

 ing, altogether new, and in quality 

 and productiveness marvels unparal- 

 leled. We are not content to allow 

 these people to have their way. When, 

 six sorts of peas are taken out of one 

 and the same sack, it is no consola- 

 tion to be assured that the sort really 

 sold under the various designations, 

 and perhaps at various prices, is a 

 good one ; when a fraud has been 

 committed, there is an end of all 

 safety. If a seedsman were to sell 

 Early Emperor pea as " Thumping- 

 ton's Defiance," or West Ham cab- 

 bage as '• Imposer's Mammoth," he 

 would commit a gross fraud, though 

 Emperor pea and West Ham cabbage 

 are such very t. r ood tilings in their 

 way. This sort of imposture is prac- 

 tised to an enormous extent ; every 

 third or tourth class seedsman is pre- 

 pared to recommend " my early pea," 

 " our onm crystal cauliflower," etc., 

 etc, a I nauseam. It so happens, how- 

 ever, that, the remedy is not hard to 

 discover. The names of good var-eties 

 are duly chronicled ; the varieties 

 themselves are submitted to com- 

 parison, and by means of the Com- 

 mittees of the Horticultural Society, 

 and other sources of information, the 

 public are informed on the relative 

 merits of garden varieties of all kinds. 

 If an assumed variety cannot be 

 shown to have a local habitation, a 

 name, and a history, the intending 

 purchaser may safely make up his 

 mind, that whatever the variety may 

 be in reality, the name at least is a 

 fiction, invented for purposes of 

 fraud. Among 116 so-called varieties 



