1880.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



351 



for our readers, but in plain English, and our 

 English word must follow English rules. Gladi- 

 olus in our sense of the word is the English or 

 common name of a bulbous garden root ; and 

 it is no less English, because its botanical one 

 happens to be the same. If your sense of pro- 

 priety is shocked, why do you not write to those 

 " other papers," who, while they write Gladioli 

 in one line, write coleuses, verbenas, and so 

 forth, in the other. Moreover, if we are to write 



gladioli in its nominative plural, why not follow 

 it through all its changes in number, gender and 

 case? It has always seemed tons that those 

 writers who have urged the " reform" forget 

 that we were dealing with a common — practi- 

 cally an English — and not with a Latin name. 

 —Ed. G. M.] 



PiNDARS. — Mr. W. T. Harding and Miss Mul- 

 ford kindly inform us, that " Pindar " is the 

 local name for pea nut in the South. 



Horticultural Societies. 



COMMUNICA TIONS. 



HUMBUGS IN HORTICULTURE. 



ESSAY, BY PETER HENDERSON. 

 (Concluded from page 318.) 



The nurserymen present are no doubt better 

 posted in the swindles practiced in their particu- 

 lar department than I am ; but operators engage 

 in different lines in different parts of the 

 country : for example, we have never yet seen in 

 the Eastern States anyone trying to sell an apple 

 tree bearing blue apples as big as melons, as we 

 were told at our meeting, at Cleveland, last year 

 had been successfully done in Ohio and Illinois. 

 Still we have men of fair ability in the nursery 

 swindling line, one of whom last winter suc- 

 ceeded in disposing of hundreds of winter- bear- 

 ing grapes, by carrying with him a few good 

 bunches of the White Malaga of the shops. 



One great detriment, not only to the florist but 

 to the pui'chaser, is begotten of these swindles 

 in horticulture. The purchaser of flowers in our 

 markets must have his plants in bloom, because 

 he has been at times so swindled that he must 

 now see what he buys. In New York, the 

 amateur rarely buys from the grower, but from 

 the agent or middleman who sells in the market 

 stands or street corners. These, whether men 

 or women, are generally entirely ignorant of the 

 nature of plants, and most of them have no re- 

 sponsibility, and they rarely fail to make their 

 wares accord to the wants of the purchaser — 

 nearly every plant is hardy, everbloomingj and 

 has all the qualities desired by the buyer. 



But now and then these swindles become a 

 serious matter to the victim. Some years ago, a 

 typical Englishman, who had been a green grocer 

 in Covent Gardet^ Market, London, found his 

 way to New York ; he at once discovered an 

 almost entire absence of Cauliflowers in our 

 markets, and, what few there were, were sold at 

 prices four times that of London. He soon 

 made up his mind to make his fortune, and, at 

 the same time, show the Yankees something 



they did not know. He duly selected and pre- 

 pared the ground for an acre, and one day in 

 May he sallied into the market to procure his 

 Cauliflower plants. This he found no difficulty 

 in doing, for at Dutch Peggy's — in those days 

 the headquarters for all kinds of herbs, plants 

 and seeds — they were to be seen by the wagon 

 load ; 10,000 were procured, the quantity for his 

 acre, and, duly planted, they began to grow 

 apace. He had planted 1st of May. If it had 

 been in England, his Cauliflower heads would 

 have been ready about the 1st of July ; but some- 

 thing was evidently wrong in the Yankee 

 climate. His cauliflower grew through June, 

 through July into August, only to develop into 

 fine specimens of drumhead cabbage, then of 

 hardly the value he had paid for them as cauli- 

 flower plants. He got out of the business 

 thoroughly disgusted ; and, in telling his sorrow- 

 ful tale to me a year afterwards, ke related that 

 when he went to expostulate with old Peggy 

 about having blasted his prospects, before he 

 could get a word said, she recognized him as a 

 customer, and demanded to know if he did not 

 again want any more early cauliflower plants. 



I have said old Peggy was also a vender of 

 seeds. It is now something over thirty years 

 ago that a young florist presented himself before 

 her and purchased an ounce of Mignonette. 

 Ever alive to business, Peggy asked him if he 

 had tried the new Red Mignonette; he protested 

 there was no such thing, but Peggy's candid 

 manner persuaded him, and fifty cents was in- 

 vested. The seed looked familiar, and when it 

 sprouted it looked more familiar; when it 

 bloomed it wixs far too familiar., for it was Red 

 Clover. Peggy h;is long since been gatliered to 

 her fathers, and I have entirely forgiven her for 

 selling me the red mignonette. 



Perhaps there is no swindling that is more ex- 

 tensively practiced, and which so cruelly injures 

 the operators of the soil, as that of adulteration 

 in fertilizers. The great mass of our farmers and 

 gardeners are poor men, who can ill afford even 

 to pay for the pure fertilizers necessary to grow 

 their crops, and to pay money and high freights 



