AND THE WILDERNESS BLOSSOMED 



known to reach marvellous proportions in the 

 size of both plants and flowers, and in the pro- 

 fusion of the bloom. The heliotrope, with its 

 dwarf plants and small blossoms, has been car- 

 ried to California, where it grows so large as to 

 be almost a tree ; but would it be fair to sell us 

 the seeds on a description based upon its appear- 

 ance there, accompanied by a photograph show- 

 ing its colossal size and profusion of bloom? 

 Yet, if it were a comparatively new or unknown 

 plant, this is exactly what one might expect to 

 see done. In referring to this matter one of the 

 oldest seed houses in America, says : 



" It really seems as if the creature, man, was as 

 anxious to be deceived in seeds as in quack medicines, 

 for we do not hesitate to declare, upon our reputation as 

 seedsmen of repute, that nine-tenths of the so-called 

 new sorts advertised at high prices are, so far as merit 

 goes, rank humbugs, and it is time the public were told 

 so. One tires of reading the adjectives of superlative 

 degree used in describing them; and one becomes still 

 more worn to find, after months of watching and 

 waiting, that the highly extolled are no better than old 

 familiar sorts." 



Had I the inclination I could not write any- 

 thing harsher than this. All readers of -seed 

 catalogues have been impressed by the " adjec- 



268 



