HUMBUGS IN HORTICULTURE. 229 



one which calls for commiseration. It was a propitious 

 season for business in this line, for the near approach of 

 spring had begun to warm up the desire to worry the 

 soil and plant something, a desire that slumbers in the 

 bosom of every man or woman who is the proprietor of a 

 garden, a back-yard, or even of a flower pot. Our vender 

 was therefore driving a brisk trade, when he was arrested 

 for obtaining money under false pretenses. The pre- 

 tense and falsehood charged were Mr. Harrison's state- 

 menr. that his seeds, when dropped into water or earth, 

 would speedily germinate and grow into a bush, which 

 would suddenly burst into beautiful and fragrant 

 bloom, and tnen bear a rich fruitage of ( wash-rags ;' a 

 crop which at once commended itself to the cleanly and 

 thrifty housewives of New Jersey. Now there is a well- 

 known vine of the Cucumber family which flourishes in 

 the "West Indies, and bears a gourd-like fruit, the spongy 

 lining of whose tough shell is used by the simple islanders 

 to brush their huts with when they have any, and for 

 toilet and culinary cleansing as well. Mr. Harrison's 

 descriptions of this vegetable may have been a trifle too 

 eloquent, but surely a merciful magistrate would con- 

 sider this nothing more than justifiable professional ex- 

 aggeration. Any one who has been attacked by a roving 

 tree agent, armed with a book full of colored lithographic 

 plates of trees clad with rainbo\v-hued foliage, and 

 decorated still further with fruit of marvelous shape and 

 bulk, will understand chat Mr. Harrison is not a unique 

 sinner, but simply a man who understands his business." 

 This list of humbugs on horticultural subjects might 

 be greatly extended, but perhaps enough has been said to 

 put the intelligent and thoughtful reader on his guard 

 in the future. 



