650 General Notices. 



plants, now three years old, are three feet high, and growing 

 vigorously: it is one of our finest oaks. 



Many other trees are well worthy of note, but we have 

 time now only to enumerate the above ; another season we 

 shall endeavor to give a better account of all that Mr. Fay is 

 doing to increase the taste for fine trees. 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. General J^otices. 



Bargains in Plants and Seeds. — The following', from an English 

 Journal, though written for the latitude of London, will answer full as well, 

 and we are inclined to think even a little better, for the latitude of Boston. 

 No people are more fond of being humbugged than our own countrymen ; 

 our auction rooms are crowded to excess with anxious purchasers of all 

 kinds of garden stuff, every fall and spring; an old rose bush "just im- 

 ported by Mons. Squeezem," three or four feet high, grafted on the top, and 

 as dry as a stick, sells for 75 cts. to $1.50, according to the name, when a 

 fine healthy plant, of the same sort, raised by a respectable cultivator, 

 would be thought " horrid" dear at 50 cts. Imported pear trees of new and 

 rare kinds are purchased at 50 or 75 cts. each, not half of which grow, and 

 the other half of which prove entirely different from their names, when fine 

 trees can be had fresh from the ground, with a certainty of the sorts, for the 

 same, or a less price. We are inclined to think the eyes of purchasers 

 would be somewhat opened, and their purses kept tighter closed, if they 

 could see a list of the things with which they have been humbugged the 

 last few years. We enumerate three of the greatest as a sample : — 



A few years ago, when fine Double Prairie roses were more rare than 

 they are now, and were selling at $ 1 each, the plants rather small, a man 

 from the West brought to Boston five barrels of Prairie roses, splendid 

 large plants. Not being able to find a purchaser among the trade, to whom 

 he applied, and who knew what they were, he found an outsider who bought 

 them, or sold them for him. An advertisement in the newspapers an- 

 nounced that "splendid Prairie roses could be had for $1 each." The rush 

 for them of course was great, and they were soon sold. But what was the 

 result.' Why, afler waiting two years for them to bloom, they were found 

 to be single Prairie roses from Michigan, the roots of which were dug up in 

 the pastures. 



Then, again, we had the White Egg grape, hundreds of which were sold 

 in State street, at $1 and $2 each, when everybody who knew anything 

 about grapes, knew they were dug up in the woods, almost by the side of 

 the doors of many who purchased them. 



Then we had the famous " Newland's Alpine strawberry," a small patch 



