J4 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



Decembei! 2. 1S9T. 



more. Plants suffer no injury by this 

 method, and we think for cut flowers, 

 that they do not have so much tobacco 

 odor from this light smoke, as when 

 houses are filled with heavy smoke bj' the 

 usual method. 



Another advantage we find, a house 

 may be free from aphis, save a certain 

 batch of plants is affected. By setting 



a traj' or two underneath such, the aphis 

 can be dislodged without filling the 

 whole house a ike with smoke; or any 

 part of the house can be fumigated heav- 

 ier than other parts if necessary. A set 

 of six trays will do for as many houses by 

 fumigating in succession. 



Daniel K. Herr. 

 Lancaster, Pa. 



JAGGS DISCOURSES. 



The young man who said he lad gradu- 

 ated from a horticultural college was 

 euijaged by " the old man " with a good 

 deal of doubt and when he had been de- 

 tected in the act of sowing cineraria seed 

 in three-inch drills the opinions expressed 

 regarding him would have raised a blush 

 on the cheek of a Greek fakir. How- 

 ever, Jaggs generously observed that even 

 a horticultural college couldn't spoil a 

 man for hustliiig a hand-barrow full of 

 carnation plants, and the graduate con- 

 tinued to adorn the Lonesomehurst 

 Greenhouses, as long as the rush season 

 lasted. 



"It does beat all, "observed Jaggs, 

 " what a lot some chaps doesn't know 

 about seeds. There was a place I worked 

 at down Baltimore way; the boss was 

 always gettin' some blooniiu' novelty; I 

 reckon he introduced more weeds in a 

 year than all the rest of the population 

 put together. One day he comes to me 

 with a little box, and he says, ' Jaggs ' 

 he says, ' this is somethink rare. It 

 come from a Spanish chap in the Phil- 

 ippines; I can't make out just what 

 it is, because he tried to write his 

 letter in English, but its somethink worth 

 having.' 'I looks at the box, and I says 

 they're queer lookin' seeds,' but the boss 

 saj'S 'that shows as the3''re somethink 



rare.' Well, I saj-s as I'll just lay 'em in a 

 warm corner o' the propagatin' house till I 

 gets around to plant them, and then for- 

 getsall about 'em for about a week. I was 

 just opening the propagatin' house one 

 mornin' when I see a green streak movin' 

 down the walk. When I gets nearer, I 

 see as it was a prickly green caterpillar, 

 about the ugliest beggar I ever see. I 

 don't suppose he was over four or five 

 inches long, but blessed if I didn't think 

 him about the size of an anaconda. 

 There was three or four more like him 

 sittin' up along the bench, and then I 

 noticed as a batch of variegated rubbers 

 as I'd just struck was gone. Them cater- 

 pillars had eaten up the whole batch; 

 thej'd left the pots, but not another 

 scrap, and there they was, lookin' as if 

 rubbers at $4 a dozen wasn't no object. 

 I looks at them, and they looks at 

 me, and then I strolls off and tells 

 the boss as them Spanish seeds has 

 germinated. He rubs his hands, and 

 says, 'Ah, I reckon as we'll see some- 

 think, as will surprise us.' I says 'I reckon 

 we will,' and strolls after him. He gets 

 a look at one o' them caterpillars, 

 sittin' on the bench, pickin' his teeth 

 with a seedlin' areca, and says, 'Well, I'm 

 blessed ! Wh ere did that chap come from? ' 

 I says' 'he germinated out o' they Spanish 

 seeds.' The bo.ss says as they're only cat- 

 erpillars and I'd better remove 'em. I 



was glad to know they was caterpillars, 

 seein' as the}- looked like infant boar 

 constrictors. 



"Well, when it came to removin o' 

 them caterpillars, I don't mind saj-in' as 

 I shied at the job. I wasn't brought up 

 to the snake-charmin' business, and those 

 chaps looked for all the world like them 

 flesh-eatin' caterpillars from Madagascar, 

 that will tackle a lion in the regular way 

 of business" — "Oh, come off," inter- 

 rupted the college graduate. "Who ever 

 heard of a flesh-eating caterpillar?" 



"It ain't likely as you did," retorted 

 Jaggs, with withering scorn. "It ain't 

 likely that a chap as doesn't know- cine- 

 rarias from Swede turnips has ever heard 

 of the vampire moths of Alalaj-sia. Why, 

 when I was orchid collectin' dow-n by 

 the Straits of Sunda where I found that 

 there blue orchid as all Linden's and 

 Sander's men has been lookin' for ever 

 since — but there, it breaks me all up to 

 think of it. As I was savin', I thinks I'll 

 tr}- the hose on them bloomin' caterpil- 

 lars, and I tried a good stream straight 

 from the hydrant, but there thej- sit up, 

 wavin' their forepaws at me, like as 

 though they enjoyed the bath." 



"Say, I never heard before of a cater- 

 pillar, waving his forepaws," observed 

 one of the audience. 



"Well, which of their paws do you 

 suppose they'd be w-avin' at a chap?" in- 

 quired Jaggs sarcastically. "I thought 

 then as I'd try the boss's terrier — he was 

 a bloomin' terror at rats, but them cater- 

 pillars just chivied him out of the house." 



"I should think the government ento- 

 mologist would like to hear about those 

 caterpillars," observed the college grad- 

 uate ironically. 



"He was," continued Jaggs. "I never 

 see a chap more grateful than he was 

 when I chloroformed the whole outfit, 

 and took 'em across to Washington. They 

 was quite tame so long as they got lots of 

 raw beef and variegated rubbers, and 

 there's no tellin' what they might a' 

 growed into if one of the chaps hadn't bor- 

 rowed that there big nepenthes from the 

 .\ndamans, and put it into the place 

 where the}- kept the caterpillars. 

 It was like puttin' a parrot and a monkey 

 in the same cage. Course the pitcher plant 

 eat the caterpillars, and it shows how 

 curi's things is in nature — the very next 

 batch of leaves as that pitcher plant made 

 was covered with prickles identical like 

 them on the caterpillars! " 



" Did you keep that there pitcher plant 

 chained up? " inquired one of the audi- 

 ence, with an air of deep anxiety. 



Jaggs stuffed a quantity of tobacco into 

 his black little cutty pipe, lit it with 

 great elaboration and, after draw-ing a few 

 whiffs, observed: " You chaps remind 

 me of a fellow I used to know; used to 

 work under me when I was head gardener 

 to the Rajah at Nagapore afore I came to 

 this bloomin' desert. You know they 

 Mohammedans is reg'lar prohibitionists; 

 there wasn't a chap on the place as would 

 take a glass of anythink, ' ceptin ' the 

 elephants, and it aint always safe to get 

 too chummy w-ith an elephant. Well, in 

 the Rajah's private garden there was an 

 arched walk covered with pitcher plants 

 growin' into a reg'lar gallery-; splendid 

 specimens they was, too, with pitchers 



