HUMBUGS IN HORTICULTURE. 237 



the grape, which he would impart for a consideration to 

 the highest bidder. He issued a profusion of hand bills 

 to the trade, asking for bids, modestly requesting the 

 receiver of the hand bill to hang it up in a conspicuous 

 place. 



I sent my copy to my friend Meehan, of the Gardener 's 

 Monthly, saying that the pages of that magazine were 

 the most conspicuous place I knew of to comply with the 

 wish of the old gentleman. Mr. Meehan not only in- 

 serted the advertisement gratis, and in the most conspicu- 

 ous manner, but he did more, for he appended below the 

 advertisement a few remarks I had ventured to make on 

 the subject. This opened the ball, and for six months 

 the pages of the Gardener s Monthly became the battle 

 ground for the opinions of the discoverer and myself. 

 But the gratuitous advertisement did not avail him much, 

 for he and his secret soon passed into oblivion, and was 

 heard from no more. There are no secrets in horticul- 

 ture. The laws that govern the germination of a seed, 

 the rooting of a cutting, or the taking of a bud or graft, 

 are the same now as they were a thousand years ago, 

 and anyone pretending to have any secret knowledge in 

 the matter is either an ignoramus or an impostor. 



Since the above was written several other swindling 

 schemes have been perpetrated. Among others, the bulb 

 man has turned up again. Having for the time being 

 become too well known in the city, he has betaken him- 

 self to the rural districts, where he plied his trade last 

 fall most successfully, finding his victims chiefly among 

 confiding women. Taking pattern of the " Blue Rose 

 Man," he has provided himself with gaudy pictures of 

 impossible Lilies, which ought to deceive none but the 

 thoughtless or ignorant. As a matter of precaution, it 

 may be well to describe his methods of operating. His 



