POPULAR ERRORS AND SCIENTIFIC DOGMAS. 221 



thing to do in checking its spread ; but thousands of 

 plants, particularly in the rural districts, are yet con- 

 signed to the coal cellar, at the dictum of some wiseacre 

 of a village doctor, who is happy to be thought thus 

 learned in the chemistry of plants. 



It is a common error to expect, in any one green- 

 house, conservatory, or other place where plants are 

 kept, that a general variety can be grown and do well. 

 If you attempt to grow Carnations or Roses in the same 

 temperature in which Coleus, Poinsettias, or Bouvardias 

 will thrive, rest assured they will complain of too much 

 heat ; while, on the other hand, if you treat these plants 

 of the tropics to the atmosphere suited to the health of a 

 Carnation or a Rose, they will soon show evidence of 

 starvation, so that when any housewife attempts to keep 

 plants of such widely different latitudes in her sitting- 

 room, she must not be surprised if the results with all 

 are not satisfactory. So, too, gentlemen employing gar- 

 deners, who have only one temperature to operate in, 

 will be unjust and unreasonable to expect satisfactory 

 results if plants from temperate and tropical countries 

 are obliged to be grown together. 



Another widespread delusion, of a very different kind, 

 pervades a large class of men, who have a taste for horti- 

 cultural matters, but who have no practical knowledge 

 of the business. They have land lying idle adjacent to 

 a town or city ; they see growers of fruit, flowers, or 

 vegetables alongside of them, rough, unlettered fellows, 

 perhaps, making the business a success ; why should 

 they, with their lands, not do likewise ? They hire a 

 manager, and plunge into the business of market gar- 

 dener or florist, and in nineteen cases out of twenty lose 

 all they invest. Nothing else need be expected. What 

 chance would a blacksmith have if he hired a dry-goods 



