HUMBUGS IN HORTICULTURE. 229 



represented by the pictures on the walls: for example, 

 Asparagus was shown as having shoots as thick as a 

 broom handle, the seeds of which were selling rapidly at 

 one cent apiece, warranted to produce a crop in three 

 months from the time of sowing; an old lady had just 

 become the possessor of $5 worth, and seemed delighted 

 with her bargain. 



One of the most attractive pictures on the wall was an 

 immense colored engraving, showing a tree, on which 

 Strawberries were growing, and as big as Oranges. My 

 gaze was attracted to a handsome plate of Blue Moss 

 Roses, and I modestly asked the price of the plants. The 

 polite Frenchman (who was doing the principal selling 

 for the concern) whisked out from beneath the table 

 three plants, representing them to be Moss Roses, (which, 

 by-the-way, were all alike, and were all our common 

 Prairie Rose,) and said, " This one, he bloom only once, 

 I tell you the truth, so I sell him for two dollar. This 

 one, he be the Remontant, he bloom twice just twice 

 I sell him for three dollar; but this one, he be the ever- 

 blooming, perpetual Blue Moss Rose, he bloom all the 

 time, he cheap at $5." I quietly remarked, if it bloomed 

 all the time, why was it not blooming now ? He looked 

 at me pityingly, and said, " My dear sir, you expect too 

 much. These Moss Rose just come over in the ship 

 from Paris. You take him home and plant him, and he 

 bloom right away, and he keep on blooming." I did not 

 take him home, but I took the story, something in the 

 shape it is now told, and had it published in one of the lead- 

 ing New York papers, and in less than a week the " Blue 

 Rose Men " had pulled up stakes, but, no doubt, to pitch 

 their camp somewhere else, and set their traps for fresh 

 victims. The " Blue Rose Men n are very impartial in 

 their wanderings, and rarely omit a city of any size, 



