230 GARDEN AND FARM TOPICS. 



beginning usually in New Orleans in January, rounding 

 northward, and ending up with Philadelphia, New York, 

 and Boston through April and May. 



These humbugs in horticulture have their comical side. 

 The other year, in passing St. Paul's Church, (Broadway,) 

 New York, I saw an old negro squatted on the pavement 

 with a great bundle of plants, carefully mossed up, lying 

 alongside of him. On inquiring what they were, he said 

 they were Rose bushes; Rose bushes having all the attri- 

 butes wanted in a Rose, fragrance, hardiness, and ever- 

 blooming, and the price but fifty cents apiece. He had 

 got them, he said, from the boss, and was selling them on 

 a commission. The poor darkey was only an innocent 

 agent. He no doubt believed he was selling Rose bushes, 

 but the boss, whoever he might be, undoubtedly knew 

 better, for the plants were not Roses at all, but the com- 

 mon Cat Brier, (Smilax sarsaparilla^) one of the worst 

 pests of our hedgerows, but the plant of which is near 

 enough in appearance to a Rose to deceive the ordinary 

 city merchant. 



That same season at every prominent street corner 

 could be seen the venders of the ''Alligator Plant," which 

 some enterprising genius had cut by the wagon load from 

 the Jersey swamps, and dealt them out to those who 

 retailed them on the street. 



The " Alligator Plant " was sold in lengths of twelve to 

 twenty inches, at from twenty-five to fifty cents apiece, 

 according to its straightness and length; and by the 

 number engaged in the business, hundreds of dollars' 

 worth must have been sold. The "Alligator Plant" is 

 the rough, triangular branches of the Sweet Gum Tree, 

 (Liquidambar styraciflua^) common in most parts of the 

 country. There is no doubt whatever that these pieces 

 of stick have been planted by thousands during the last 



