THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



155 



clair, N. J. For irises, peonies and phloxes the Hst of W. H. 

 Farr, Wyomissing, Pa., is probably best. If this were an 

 advertisement for the seed and plant houses, we would include 

 many others in our list, but it is not. We simply have men- 

 tioned some of the catalogues which we have found of special 

 interest, with the idea that others may like to know of them. 



jjs sis 



A few years ago, a good many of our readers were doubt- 

 less solicited to join the "Luther Burbank Society" and then by 

 the payment of a certain sum to receive a set of books detailing 

 the wonderful creations produced by the "Wizard of Horticul- 

 ture." The pathway of the society may have been strewn with 

 roses, but evidently somebody neglected to remove all the thorns 

 for the Rural New Yorker recently printed the following: 

 " 'What is their little game, anyway T That is what people asked 

 at the time the Luther Burbank Society was sending out its rose- 

 tinted guff and asking people to join the immortals by becom- 

 ing a 'life member.' We did not know then what the game 

 was, but it is being developed now. All capital stock in this 

 Burbank Society is being assessed one dollar per share. There 

 are liabilities of $73,023. Among the 'assets' is the item of 

 $287,500 as 'value of the exclusive right to use the name of 

 Luther Burbank and to distribute his horticultural productions.' 

 The 'little game' seems to have been the same as that of the 

 shell game, a run for your dollar. What a farce the whole 

 thing was. How they did play on the vanity of hundreds of 

 men and women who ought to have known better." The 

 editor of the American Botanist was asked to read the proof of 

 the several volumes of the Society as they passed through the 

 press, and actually received the first installment of several 

 pages. It was, however, so inaccurate in respect to facts that 

 several pages of corrections were sent back to the Society and 

 that ended the proof-reading. Thinking that the real name of 



