38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND 



for the first time and the last. Then I went to New 

 York, to see the secretary of our Horticultural Society 

 to get some information. I was hardly in his office 

 when I saw a branch of our Coleus ! before I saw him, 

 standing in a glass of water on his desk. I went to 

 the desk took the glass in my hand and presenting it to 

 him I asked him where he took it, or hooked it perhaps I 

 forget. He answered me that I was very prompt in judg- 

 ing others with my own feelings .... but he said: I sup- 

 pose that you would not dislike a portion of it even if 

 stolen ? I answered in the affirmative, he took the branch 

 and cut me one or two joints ! Now, do you realize 

 how I felt when I held a section of that coveted plant 

 in my hand ? I confess that I forgot for a moment my 

 disappointment of that trinity of deceptions that 

 weighed on my heart when I left Brooklyn. The 

 transgressions of the " element " in having passed that 

 resolution on Foreign exhibitors the determination not 

 to award me any first premium, deserved or not, and 

 not expecting to get my Coleus cuttings, that I got with- 

 out cutting my fingers ! That Coleus was one of the 

 best weed that I ever had. A weed ! Will you say ? 

 "Well, this qualifying adjective is not my own coming, 

 it belongs to our old friend Mr. Wm. Grey of Albany 

 who described it " a fine ornamental nettle " (Urtica 

 urens) a lad weed in Europe, any how ! I have felt 

 its malignity on some part of my individual 



