116 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



times. Many of them you may call absurdities ; but as you will 

 see by the following pages, notwithstanding the faultiness of the 

 books on the art of gardening at that time, there are many truths 

 in them which it would be well to observe. What today we call 

 our own inventions we find were practised by the ancients centuries 

 ago, and while their age was one of superstition, in many cases 

 ours is little less so today ; as we shall see if we consider that 

 their fallacies have been practised in our own country less than a 

 century ago. Even today, not only the common people, but those 

 who are professed horticulturists, are easily taken in by the glar- 

 ing descriptions of horticultural products sent out by some of our 

 advertisers. I have seen — right here under the shadow of Horti- 

 cultural Hall — water chestnuts, bearing leaves of parsley pinned 

 in them, sold to some of our members as something new and curi- 

 ous. It may not have been the ignorance of these members, be- 

 cause they ought to have known better ; but it was that same 

 curiosity that so often gets control of the human mind ; they want 

 something extraordinary, even if they know it cannot be. They 

 want a change, and if the ancients could have made an illustrated 

 catalogue, showing more impossibilities in the way of fruit and 

 flowers than we find in some catalogues of today, we might call 

 them smart. While there are many conscientious nurserymen and 

 seedsmen who give honest descriptions of the seeds, plants, or 

 flowers they offer for sale, there are many catalogues that are mis- 

 leading and detrimental to the business. Possibly it is true, as an 

 eminent florist once said, that " there is a new crop of fools every 

 year." 



The Origin oj Grafting. — Grafting is of great antiquity. It is 

 mentioned by several of the Greek authors — Theophrastus, Pliny, 

 and others — but in a rather unsatisfactory manner. It is referred 

 to by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans, chapter XI, verses 17, 

 19, 23, 24, as follows : 



"And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being 

 a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them 

 partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree. 



" Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might 

 be grafted in. 



"And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be 

 grafted in ; for God is able to graft them in again. 



