318 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[October, 



alongside of him. On inquiring what they were, 

 he said they were Rose bushes — Rose bushes 

 having all the attributes wanted in a rose, fra- 

 grance, hardiness, and everblooming, and the 

 price but 50 cents apiece. He had got them, 

 he said, from the boss, and was selling them on 

 a commission. The poor darkey was only an 

 innocent agent; he no doubt believed he was 

 selling rose bushes, but the Boss, whoever he 

 might be, undoubtedly knew better, for the plants 

 were not roses at all, but the common cat briar 

 — Smilax sarsaparilla — one of the worst pests of 

 our hedgerows, but which is near enough in ap- 

 pearance to a rose to deceive the ordinarj- city 

 merchant. 



That same season at every prominent street 

 corner could be seen the vendors of the "Alli- 

 gator Plant," which some enterprising genius 

 had cut by the wagon load from the Jersey 

 swamps, and dealt them out to those who re- 

 tailed them on the street. 



The "Alligator Plant" was sold in lengths of 

 12 to 20 inches, from 25 to 50 cents apiece, ac- 

 cording to its straightness and length ; and by 

 the number engaged in the business, bundreds 

 of dollars' worth have been sold. The " Alliga- 

 tor Plant " is the rough triangular branches of 

 the Sweet Gum Tree [Liqiddambar styraciflua) , 

 common in most parts of the country. There is 

 no doubt whatever that these pieces of stick 

 have been planted by thousands during the last 

 two years in the gardens in and around New 

 York, with about as much chance of their grow- 

 ing as the fence pickets. 



The Bulb Peddlers, a class of itinerant swin- 

 dlers, deserve brief attention. They have always 

 some wonderful novelty in bulbs ; and their 

 mode of operating to the uninitiated has a sem- 

 blance ot fairness, as they are liberal fellows, and 

 frankly offer to take one-half cash on delivery, 

 and if the goods do not come up to representa- 

 tion the other half need not be paid — for ex- 

 ample, when the Gold-banded Japan Lily was 

 first introduced, bulbs the size of hickory nuts 

 sold at $250 per 100. About that time one of 

 these worthies came along with samples of a lily 

 of fine size and appearance, with which he told 

 he had just arrived from Japan. There was no 

 doubt of its genuineness, for he had seen it flower. 

 He had a large stock, and would sell at $100 per 

 100, but he was willing to take half that amount 

 down and the other half when it flowered and 

 had proved correct. It did not prove correct, 

 and he never called. The bulb he sold was the 

 common White Lily — Lilium Candidum — which 

 is sold everywhere at $5 to $6 per 100. These 

 same scamps flood the rural districtvS every year 

 with blue gladiolus, scarlet tuberoses, and other 

 absurdities in bulbs and seeds, usually on the 

 same terms, of one-half cash down, the other 

 half when the rara am has feathered out. It is 

 needless to say that they never try it twice on the 

 same victim, but avail themselves of our broad 

 continent, to seek new fields for tlieir operations. 



One of the most successful swindlers of this 

 type was Comanche George, whose fame became 

 national. George made his advent in New York 



in 1876. He was, he said, a Texas scout, and for 

 years his rifle, revolver, and bowie knife had 

 been the terror of the red man ; but one day in 

 his rambles on the lone Texas prairies his eyes 

 were arrested by a flower whose wonderful color- 

 ing eclipsed the rainbow, and whose delicate 

 perfume was wafted over the Brazos for leagues ; 

 in short, never before had eye of mortal rested 

 on such a flower. The man of war was subdued. 

 He betook himself to the peaceful task of gather- 

 ing the seed, and turned his steps to the haunts 

 of civilized man to distribute it. We first heard 

 of him in Washington, where he wished to place 

 it in the hands of the Government, and accord- 

 ingly off^ered it to Mr. Wm. Smith, Superintend- 

 ent of the Botanic Gardens there, but the Gov- 

 ernment, so Smith said, was not just then in a 

 position to buy, and with his advice, George 

 trimmed his sails for New York, and a market. 

 His success in Baltimore and Philadelphia was 

 so great (where he started the sale of the seeds 

 at two cents a piece), that it induced him when 

 he struck New York, to advance the price to five 

 cents a seed He put up at one of the best 

 hotels, and claimed that for a month his sales of 

 the seed of the Cockatelle — the beautiful Texas 

 flower — reached $50.00 a day. But his success 

 threw him ofi" his balance ; to took to fire-water, 

 and in an unguarded moment fell into the hands 

 of a newspaper man, who extracted from him all 

 the facts connected with the enterprise. George 

 never was a scout, had never been in Texas, but 

 he had been a good customer to the various 

 seedsmen of the different cities, where his pur- 

 chases of Okra or Gumbo Seed, at about fifty 

 cents a pound, had made nearly a dearth of the 

 article. His victims (whose names he gave by 

 the score, and which were duly chronicled in the 

 newspaper article referred to) were from all 

 classes : the enterprising florist, who secretly 

 went into it in a wholesale way, with a view to 

 outwit his less fortunate fellows; the grandee of 

 Fifth Avenue, who anticipated a blaze of beauty 

 on his lawn; the hotel man, whose window 

 boxes were to perfume the air ; all had fallen 

 easy victims to the wiles of Comanche George. 

 George disappeared from New York, though 

 there is but little doubt that his business had 

 been too successful for him to abandoii it. 

 A newspaper paragraph, cut from a paper last 

 week, which reads as follows, looks as if it might 

 be the Texas Scout in a somewhat different role : 

 " The prepossessing appearance, gentlemanly 

 demeanor, and foreign accent of the man who 

 called himself Carlo Corella, Botanist to the 

 Court of Brazil, convinced a number of wealthy 

 San Francisco ladies that he was truthful. He 

 said to each that the failure of a remittance 

 compelled him to sell some rare bulbs of Brazil- 

 ian Lilies, which he had intended to present to 

 Mrs. R. B. Hayes. '' The flower,' says the Chroni- 

 cle, 'was to be a great scarlet bell, with ecru 

 ruchings on the petals, a solferino frill around 

 the pistil, and a whole bottle of perfumery on 

 each stamen.' He sold about fifty almost worth- 

 less bulbs at $4.00 each." 



(To be continued.) 



