IMPOSTERS.— THE LAWTON BLACKBERRY, 



BY A. C. HUBBARD, DETROIT. 



For one I feel under great obligations to the Horticulturist for your very sensible 

 remarks in your leader for June, exposing the many frauds and species of deception 

 practiced upon nurserymen and the public. In passing around the corner from 

 Jefferson Avenue towards the post-ofl&ce in Detroit this spring, I observed something 

 of a crowd upon the sidewalk, and going near and looking over to see what attraction 

 was there, I saw a flaming picture of the Connecticut Mammoth Grape fastened 

 inside of the lid of a large black trunk, which was thrown open — the trunk being 

 filled with the roots of Grapes, represented to bear fruit of surpassing excellence, 

 and size enormous. Knowing the description, I passed along, when a friend called 

 to me, with one of the roots in his hand, and said, see here, what do you think of 

 this Grape ; they are selling them for two dollars and a half a plant. Said I, don't 

 you buy it ; it is certainly worthless, and besides if you wish that variety we have 

 the same kind we should sell you for twenty-five cents. Well, says he, I am sold ; 

 I have just paid two dollars and a half for it. The same man kept his station there 

 for nearly or quite two weeks, and invariably had a crowd around him ; how many 

 he sold I am not informed, but he did a large business — his trunk was replenished 

 every morning. Now I venture to say, that if it had happened that a nurseryman 

 had by some accident sold a Connecticut Grape of the same kind as above described, 

 for an Isabella or a Catawba, for imo or three dollars, he would have been set down 

 as a gross deceiver, and a man not to be trusted. 



A word with regard to the Lawton Blackberry. We had a large pot of these 

 Blackberries in the green-house this spring, which was observed by a Scotch gar- 

 dener whom we had just employed; aye, he says, and here you have the Scotch 

 Bramble. No, I said, it is a new variety of the Blackberry; a seedling, a very 

 superior kind. Aye, but it is the Bramble ; I know it ; I have seen them filled, 

 just filled, with fruit as big as that (measuring ofi" two-thirds of his thumb) ; aye, 

 he says, you would have to make two bites to every berry. He went on then 

 describing how it branches out, and how it was completely filled with fruit, so that 

 the branches would bend over to the ground, and described the enormous quantity 

 obtained from one branch, their delicious flavor, &c., &c. Upon reading the com- 

 munication from U. Adrian, Michigan, it occurred to me that it might be after all 

 the Bramble, and have been imported from England with shrubbery by the former 

 proprietor of the farm, where the plant was discovered. 



RUSTIC ORNAMENTS 



Many good pictures exist of Rural Ornaments for gardens, and yet strange to say, 

 rarely are perfect and satisfactoiy specimens to be seen. The fastidious eye is 

 off'ended by some detail in many instances ; in others the wrong situation has been 

 selected, or the place is in disorder with neglected vines. Some one has happily 



