RECOLLECTIONS, 1855-61. 41 



it did not. I said again it did. I found after that 

 he was right, but what makes me mention that cir- 

 cumstance it is not the name, but the fact that that 

 plant was dead, and none of us noticed it, and yet 

 Mr. Low was a competent judge in that matter. 

 When he and his friend left me I went with them 

 to Albany, always thinking of my plant (Ericas at 

 that time were my hobby), that it had a green look, 

 ing appearance but could not realize that it was dead. 

 As soon as I got home I went to see it with a candle 

 it was night but could not see any indication of its 

 beinsr dead no more than four or five hours before. 



O 



As soon as day light came I went again, then I did 

 not want spectacles to see it was gone ad patres 

 gone to heaven dead. Since that I have seen many 

 such examples. I once sold one that I knew was 

 dead, but the man had selected it among a few of 

 the same kind. That man was a gardener. I sent 

 him that plant with another alive. He got them 

 the same day I sent them, and the day following he 

 wrote me I had made a mistake, that he wanted only 

 one. He soon found out he was mistaken not I. 

 Once I sold a Cereus senilis in the same circumstance 

 and the party who got them told me the dead one was 

 the best looking of the two . That man was our friend 

 Mr. Wm. Grey ! ! So this long spun story shows you 

 that gardeners are as infallible as the Pope that is to 



