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the family doctor, armed with a smattering of chemical 
lore, glibly asserts that plants at night give out carbonic 
acid gas, which is poisonous to animal life, and conse- 
quently if plants are kept in sleeping rooms sickness and 
even death may ensue. Nothing can be more destitute 
of truth. That plants give out carbonic acid gas at night 
may be true, but that they give it out in quantities 
enough to endanger human life is utter nonsense. If it 
were so we would be free from the attacks of the thous- 
ands of insects that infest our plants, for their low organ- 
isation would cause them to fall the first victims to a gas 
as poisonous as carbonic acid. Besides most gardeners 
know that on cold nights when in charge of the fires, the 
greenhouse is a comfortable place to sleep, and it would 
be difficult to find as a class a more healthy lot of people 
than gardeners or florists. The writer has been raised 
in greenhouses since his early boyhood, and has not only 
worked and eat in them in the day time, but also slept 
in them at night, and sickness or ill health is something 
unknown to him. This is something of a nut for the 
wisacre of the village doctor to crack. Much more could 
be written upon all the wiles and tricks of dishonest 
horticulturists, and the popular errors regarding many 
things that bear directly upon both Floriculture and 
Horticulture, We think enough has been said to put 
the thoughtful on their guard, and if by the perusal of 
this chapter we may save a portion of our readers from 
the sharks of the profession, and cause them to use the 
same good judgment in the purchase of their plants or 
flowers as they do in all others matters they so ably man- 
age, our object will be fully achieved. 
