198 AN ESSAY. 



get, I exhibited some few plants. Among them were 

 some large Polygalas and Laurustinus, etc. One of the 

 last was a plant some 7 to 8 feet high, with its tub, 

 and a stem perhaps 3 feet high, and of the diameter of 

 a spade's handle, and the head 20 to 21, or perhaps 22 

 feet in circumference, with flowers enough to totally 

 eclipse the foliage. That plant I had COAXED for about 

 fifteen or sixteen years. By the way, I forget to tell 

 the variety. It was Yiburnum nitidum, whose foliage 

 and flowers, when well grown, are about double the size 

 of tinus, which is " a good plant" notwithstanding the 

 declamations of some moral, invalid, gardeners, who 

 wittily say it is played out, used up, it does not flower, 

 which is about right ; but whose fault is it, the plant 

 or the gardener ? 1 incline to the latter. Poor excuse, 

 when a plant does not do well to say that it is a lad 

 plant. Why not say " a lad gardener" as I do when- 

 ever I fail. I do not know if Nature has created bad 

 plants, but I am pretty certain she has in her evolutions 

 produced men with very weak minds. Excuse me this 

 overflow, and I come to our topic. A gentleman in 

 Broolyn fell in love with that plant, and asked me if I 

 would sell it. I answered affirmatively. Then he in- 

 quired the price. I told him $100. He said he would 

 take it, and he thought that I could afford to give him 

 a couple of Ixora Coecinea into the bargain, which 1 

 did. On hearing the result of the transaction, a know- 



