HUMBUGS IK HORTICULTURE. 223 



successful for him to abandon it. A newspaper para- 

 graph which reads as follows, looks as if it might be the 

 Texas scout in a somewhat different role : 



*'The prepossessing appearance, gentlemanly demeanor, 

 and foreign accent of the man who called himself Carlo 

 Corella, botanist to the Court of Brazil, convinced a 

 number of wealthy San Francisco ladies that he was 

 truthful. He said to each that the failure of a remittance 

 compelled him to sell some rare bulbs of Brazilian Lilies, 

 which he had intended to present to Mrs. R. B. Hayes. 

 'The flower,' says the Clironicle, 'was to be a great scar- 

 let bell, with ecra ruchings on the petals, a solferino frill 

 around the pistil, and a whole bottle of perfumery in 

 each stamen.' He sold about fifty almost worthless 

 bulbs at four dollars each." 



Nurserymen are no doubt better posted in the swindles 

 practiced in their particular 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 any one trying to sell an apple tree bear- 

 ing blue apples as big as melons, as we were told, at our 

 meeting at Cleveland, had been successfully done in 

 Ohio and Hlinois. 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-bearing 

 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 

 purchaser, 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 

 comers. These, whether men or women, are generally 

 entirely ignorant of the nature of plants, and most of 



