574 



The Weekly Florists^ Review. 



MARCH 



189S. 



name will denote, was an Irishman; 

 one o£ the very few specimens of that 

 qiiicii-witted race that was to be found 

 in that neighborhood. He was not over 

 four feet six inches in height, but had 

 the strength of a Sandow and the agili- 

 ty of a monliey. He must have been 

 an expert dancer when young, for 

 when an old man he could delight us 

 with his jigs, but he wanted a little 

 coaxing to start him: a glass or two, 

 a lively scrape on the fiddle or an at- 

 tempt by some awkward fellow would 

 bring him to his feet. Like nearly all 

 native Irishmen he was great on the 

 broad jump, far excelling the native 

 clod hoppers whose bread and cheese 

 stiffened joints were as wood beside 

 him. The fact that Irishmen are great 

 jumpers can be explained most reason- 

 ably by an evolutionary theory. Many 

 parts of the island are boggy and 

 a spring from one object of footing to 

 another has through countless gener- 

 ations developed the muscles, and fa- 

 cility to make prodigious springs and 

 jumps. This curiosity, for such he 

 was, did not converse in the rich 

 brogue of Limerick or Tipperary or 

 "Cark" or "Westmath." He came from 

 the far western rugged county of Gal- 

 way and before he set foot on the soil 

 of England, spoke or understood not 

 a word of English and hereby hangs a 

 tale. 



Seventy years ago. counterfeiting 

 was a crime punished by death. 

 There also existed at that time in Lon- 

 don, and may be throughout the land, 

 a species of reward for the detection of 

 crime. It was given the infamous 

 name of "blood money." Poor Quinn 

 and two or three companions, who 

 spoke only the ancient Irish or Gaelic, 

 were coaxed into a room by some 

 scoundrels, counterfeit money placed 

 before them with the moulds, etc., then 

 the door was locked on them, the po- 

 lice informed of the discovery, and 

 directed to the locality. They were 

 of course caught in the act, arrested, 

 tried with no one to defend them, and 

 sentenced to be hanged. While wait- 

 ing execution Quinn mentioned the 



name of Sir , owner of the estate 



from which he had come in Galway. 

 The guards understood that name and 

 the baronet who owned the name was 

 communicated with, and inquiry re- 

 vealed the work of these scoundrels, 

 who doubtless, by that time, had 

 drawn their pay. Quinn and his unfor- 

 tunate companions were released and 

 from this very case and the following 

 inquiry and exposure that followed, 

 dates the abolition of the infamous 

 system of blood money. 



Quinn was ever after a ward of the 

 man who saved his life, and as he was 

 also the owner of the garden we have 

 been wandering in, he found his way 

 there. I could fill a book with stories 

 of him, hut must close. He was not 

 tasty in his apparel. His patron and 

 countryman, a relative of the proprie- 

 tor. Captain L , was 6 feet 2 



inches, some IS inches taller than 

 Quinn, but that did not prevent the lat- 

 ter from accepting the captain's cast 



off clothing. Many a time I have seen 

 Quinn washing pots on a winter's day 

 (the pace was about three pots per 

 hour), wearing the captain's trousers, 

 no need of a vest, the top rim of the 

 trousers touched Quinn's chin, but in 

 spite of that he declared in his quaint 

 broken English: "Bother my dear I 

 just take the captain's pants," mean- 

 ing they were a good fit. Quinn fre- 

 quently asserted "his Mary Ann paid 

 two guineas to be a tailoress." She had 

 evidently in her long years of married 

 life and domestic trouble forgotten the 

 useful art, for Quinn often appeared 

 with a large patch of red or blue flan- 

 nel in a back ground of black pants. 

 Mary Ann attended her church very 

 regularly and swallowed all the gin 

 she could lay her hands on. Poor Quinn 

 had a natural instinct for appropriat- 

 ing any loose article that was not 

 chained, particularly firewood and 

 vegetables; in that he was like the 

 noble red man or our faithful dog. 

 With these slight exceptions they were 

 a very harmless family. 



Pineapples were grown in this gar- 

 den to perfection and occupied several 

 long, well-heated structures that we 

 called pine pits. They were not fruit- 

 ed in pots of 20-inch diameter, as some 

 gardeners believe they must be, and 

 another innovation was practiced that 

 I believe was not in general usage. 

 After the suckers were rooted in small 

 pots they were planted in beds and 



made twice the growth they would il^ 

 kept in pots, then lifted and fruited 

 in 10 and 12-inch pots. I have helped 

 my father pack for London almost 

 tons of grand pineapples, each wrap- 

 ped in tissue paper and tightly packed 

 in boxes with hay, but those were the 

 days when at certain seasons they 

 were worth two dollars per pound and 

 even more. The Queen and Black 

 Jamaica were mostly grown. Smooth 

 Cayenne, perhaps the best of all, was 

 not so well known then. Black Prince 

 and Providence were cut as heavy as 

 eight and nine pounds, but the flavor 

 is poor, a Queen of four pounds and a 

 Black Jamaica of three pounds is a 

 good, fair fruit. In those days the 

 pineapples that were grown in the- 

 Azores and Jamaica were not much 

 larger than an Easter Beurre pear and 

 not tolerated by anybody. Some years- 

 ago good gardeners were sent to the 

 West Indies and the Azores, and their 

 cultivation made a business. Wi hi 

 that and rapid transit the fruit now 

 sent to London and our ports is of 

 such excellence that the cultivation 

 of pineapples, once a lucrative indus- 

 try, is about commercially abandoned. 

 At the same time a slice of liberal 

 size from a hot-house Black Jamaica 

 would induce me to lay down my pen. 

 and wishing I had it now, I wish you 

 for the present good night. 



BIBBER. 

 (To he continued.) 



Azaleas. 



I receive at this time several inquir- 

 ies about the earliness of Easter stock. 

 Although it is a threadbare subject, 

 still it is of great moment to many a 

 one at this time. When these lines are 

 before the readers it will be just five 

 weeks to Easter Saturday, the day we 

 want everything at its best. Without 

 moving, manuring, shading, forcing 

 and retarding it is impossible to get 

 all your crops in about right. 



You can see by this time what aza- 

 leas will be sufficiently forward and 

 which of them need a little more heat. 

 The variety so largely grown. Mme. 

 Van der Cruyssen, is opening rapidly, 

 and so is that splendid pink, Memoire 

 de Louis van Houtte. The ventilators 

 must be kept open day and night when 

 possible. What will help retard them 

 very much is shading, for now is the 



season when bright days will come, 

 welcomed by all, but disastrous to a 

 crop that j'ou wish to retard. You can 

 tack up cheese cloth or some such ma- 

 terial beneath the glass, that will be 

 shade, but will not lower the tempera- 

 ture of the house, and I would prefer 

 a coat of whitewash on the outside 

 that will lower the temperature as 

 well as shade. You need not fear that 

 it will remain on to hurt your plants 

 that come later. Frost at night and 

 heavy April showers will remove 

 much of it. It is much easier to slight- 

 ly force the backward azaleas than re- 

 tard the earlier, but both can be done. 



Cytisus Lilac. 



The same treatment can be given to 

 cytisus, which with us is too early. If 

 it is just beginning to show color it is 

 in plenty of time. Three weeks is 

 ample time to give to lilac. If givea 



