A full and frank exchange with Mr Prince

December 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 1823 – Finished packing and everything on board on the 5th

I went to Flushing [to Prince’s Nursery]: our words were not of the most amicable tenor, and I am sorry to say that I leave America without having good feeling towards every person; and the conduct towards the Society of Mr Prince is by no means laudable and towards myself most infamous.
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This is DD’s famous row with Mr Prince. He doesn’t go into details and it’s impossible to speculate with any certainty. But I suspect that Prince has promised certain items to Douglas and failed to deliver, or attempted a price rip-off beyond his original quote. He may also be threatening to blacken Douglas' name with the Society. Whatever, it would have been lovely to have been a fly on the wall.
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Mr Kennedy has through the whole of my stay here been very kind, and I have experienced every facility in his power. I need not say anything of Mr Hogg (his ability and willingness are well known to the Society), Mr Floy and Mr Wilson, and in fact every person except Prince: this gentleman is now such as becomes the Society to withhold the correspondence.

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This, about Prince, is strong stuff from Douglas, still only 24, remember.   Prince is an important corresponding member of the Society, and a valuable source of American plants for British members, and Douglas is recommending that the Society withdraw that Corresponding Member status.  Hmm, steady on, David.  Proceed with care.

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The feelings of Dr Hosack are already known. I cannot but say, at all times and in all cases, I found his very philanthropic mind unchanged, and his advice as to my own comfort. My feelings will never, I hope, in an instance speak but with gratefulness of Governor Clinton. I can say nothing more than that Dr Hosack is a Clinton, and Clinton a Hosack.

This is an interesting excerpt from Douglas' Journal. He is writing in full knowledge that it will be read by his employers, so is at pains to thank, in this public form, those who have been so helpful to him. Quite right too. But he also loses no opportunity to twist the knife with regard to Mr Prince. Is he getting his retaliation in first, I wonder? Prince is a corresponding member of the Society and, if he is feeling aggrieved at the outcome of his dealings with Douglas, may be inclined to cast aspersions on the character and abilities of the Society's man. Indeed, Lindsay and House tell us that "...Prince was displeased at this snub [DD buying plants elsewhere because Prince's were expensive and weren't up to Douglas' standards].  Not only did he complain to the Society in London, he also did his best to blacken Douglas' name in and around New York."

Let's not forget that this is Douglas' first expedition and, despite Hooker's recommendation and all his Scottish experience, he is still relatively untested as a plant collector in the Society's eyes. He may be feeling a tad vulnerable, hence "telling it as it was" with regard to Prince.

The Getting of the Plants

Monday, November 17th, 1823 – At Flushing and got part of the trees up. Could not get finished as Mr Prince has not all the plants which are ardently needed. Many times he expressed himself pleased with the Society and is to put up a collection of fruits, which will be an acquisition, especially as I have almost failed with Coxe.

So Prince is not quite making good on what Douglas expects, and Douglas is beginning to suspect that he never will.

From 18th to 22nd – Employed packing plants etc., Got part of the boxes on board.

Sunday November 23rd – Wrote to Joseph Sabine Esq., and finished putting up my dry plants. At church in the afternoon.

26th – Received the trees from Philadelphia and Burlington, got them from the wharf, ordered boxes for them, I now feel a little at ease.

Thursday 27th – Got remainder of trees etc. packed and taken down to the vessel, and box from Baltimore.

29th – Received boxes from Flushing and transmitted on board ship; packing and at Mr Hogg’s.

30th – Accompanied Mr Hogg to some of his friends in the country

Reading between the lines of his Journal, this is clearly a bit of an anxious time for Douglas. He will be judged by his employers on what he brings back and it's all coming together in the last few days. He needs to actually receive all the trees he has ordered from various sources, get them boxed up for the voyage home, get them to the wharf and supervise their loading. This will be hard work and require lots of coordination from him, overseeing people who probably don't attach the same importance to his trees as he does.

 

Meanwhile, with the other hand, he is doing the same with his more transportable dry material. It all feels a bit last-minute. He has another few days of packing and loading to get through, and one last confrontation with Mr Prince at Flushing. But he's nearly done.

Packing up

12th [November, 1823] – Received a letter dated 5th October from Joseph Sabine Esq., [Secretary of the Horticultural Society] accompanied by additional lists; without delay wrote to Messrs Landreth and Smith; called on Mr Floy; Mr Hogg then went to Flushing [site of Mr Prince’s nursery] and returned in the evening. I must observe that Mr Prince Jun., did not receive us with kindness but the reverse. If I can but obtain all the plants for the Society, I shall leave him for some other person.

Thursday, November 13th, 1823 – Wrote to Mr Dick at Philadelphia a letter of thanks. Packed Mr Floy’s box and took up plants and packed Mr Wilson’s.
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Douglas is now really in the groove of packing all his material up for the voyage back to Britain. But he really does not hit it off with Mr Prince; there'll be another bust up before he leaves New York!

Horticultural Housekeeping

20th – Employed getting the package from the wharf to Mr Hogg’s, and unpacking the plants.

Tuesday 21st – In the morning went to Flushing [How did he do this? His main base seems to be on Manhattan Island; how does he travel across the East River to Flushing?] and made arrangements with Mr Prince as to taking up the trees; returned in the evening.

Wednesday, October 22nd – Employed all day at Mr Hogg’s, among the plants, securing &c. 

 

Thursday, October 23rd, 1823 – Today employed giving fresh paper to seeds and specimens. Wrote a letter to Joseph Sabine Esq. Called on Mr Thorburn for the purpose of getting ready his parcel.

Douglas is spending a lot of time getting his plant and seed collections in order for the voyage home, although in fact he won't leave for some time yet.  Nevertheless, this is good preparation and a sort of 'dry run' for the much bigger collections he will eventually ship back from the Pacific North West - he doesn't yet know that is where he will be going but he must have an inkling that the Horticultural Society will be planning to send him somewhere

The Fulton market, and his first encounter with Mr Prince

Monday, August 11th, 1823 - Early this morning I went to the vegetable market, the Fulton. It had a beautiful appearance, beet of superior variety and fine carrots, raised in this country; I observed a very great deficiency of cauliflower, indeed they were miserably poor; onions were fine, mostly red; immense supply of melons and cucumbers – the latter of which, however, not as fine as may be expected and appeared for the most part to be the same as the short prickly ones cultivated in England [ie. the outdoor ‘gherkin’ type of cucumbers] – the melons were fine.

An abundant supply of early apples, pears, peaches - the two former were fine but the peaches looked rather bad, being ripened immaturely and the trees being sickly. Immense varieties of squashes or gourds, plums, early damsons, a great supply of pineapples from the West Indies, and cocoanuts [sic]. I observed a fine head of Musa sapientum [a now-outdated name for bananas] which weighed 40lb.

At 8'clock this morning [ie. after his must-have-been-very-early visit to the market!] we set off for Flushing and visited the establishment of Mr Prince. I found him a man of but moderate liberality.....Indeed on the whole I must confess to be somewhat disappointed, for his extensive catalogue and some talk had heightened my idea of it; but most of his ground is covered over with weeds.

Douglas' early training as a gardener in the grounds of Scone Palace is coming to the fore here. He was always interested in local produce and always quick to check it out and assess the quality. The Fulton Fish Market opened in 1822, so was quite new at the time, near the Brooklyn Bridge on South Street between Beekman and Fulton Streets. The market primarily functioned in two open air sheds, known as the Tin Building and the New Market Building. For most of its life it was the premier fish market in NYC. Perhaps the fish and vegetable sections were separate and Douglas has simply not visited or commented on the fish!

 

And what of Mr Prince, with whom Douglas seems distinctly unenamoured. Again courtesy of the Journal of the New York Botanical garden (Vol 43, No 515, November 1942) and also from Wikipedia, we learn that he was the grandson of horticulturist William Prince (c.1725-1802). Mr Prince (Senior, the grandfather - it's very confusing when they're all called William and all in the same business!) interest in horticulture was commercial: he devoted his attention to servicing a growing market for plants rather than to scientific research of interest to botanists.

In 1793 the younger William Prince, bought 80 acres (32 ha) of land and extended the nurseries of his father in Flushing. He brought many varieties of fruits into the United States, sent many trees and plants to Europe, and systematized the nomenclature of the best-known fruits, such as the Bartlett pear and the Isabella grape. He introduced the Isabella grape to United States viticulture, for which it was long one of the mainstays. The London Horticultural Society [Douglas's employer] named the “William Prince” apple in his honour. He was a member of the horticultural societies of London and Paris, of the Imperial Society of Georgofili of Florence, and of the principal societies in the U.S. The meeting of horticulturists in 1823, at which De Witt Clinton delivered an address, was held at his residence. A botanist of wide experience, he had worked in the field with Professor Torrey of Columbia [University] and Professor Nuttall of Harvard. 

His son, William Robert Prince 1795-1869 (grandson of the founder of the famly nurseries), continued the business established by his father - the Linnaean Nurseries - but financial troubles intervened. It is unclear which of these two Mr Prince's Douglas met [William Robert Prince is almost the same age as Douglas but his father would carry more gravitas and authority] but what is clear is that:

• they were both seriously big cheeses in horticulture in NYC, and
• Douglas wasn't much impressed. 

He had another falling out with them later on this trip.