494 ricker: botanical activity in district of Columbia 



The second nurseryman in the District, John Adlum/^ for 

 whom the genus Adlumia was named, hke the first, devoted 

 his attention from 1816 to 1836 mostly to grape culture. He 

 owned about 140 acres of land, and his house, which was re- 

 cently torn down, was located at the southeast corner of the 

 Bureau of Standards, the old well being the only thing left to 

 mark the site. Part of the northern slope of the valley di- 

 rectly south of the Bureau of Standards is still covered with a 

 great tangle of grape vines, some of them being of considerable 

 size. It is also possible to make out fairly well definite rows in 

 which these vines were planted. 



Joshua Pierce, from 1823 to 1869, was the first to conduct a 

 general nursery in the District, consisting of about 82 acres lo- 

 cated in Rock Creek Park, where the old stone house still stands. 



The nursery of John Saul, consisting of about 120 acres, was 

 located on Seventh Street Road from 1854 to 1897. The cata- 

 logues of this nursery indicate that the variety of stock was 

 probably far ahead of that of any other nursery in this country 

 at the time. Saul was a member of the District Parking Com- 

 mission from the time of its origin until his death. On arriv- 

 ing in Washington in 1851 he, under the supervision of Andrew 

 J. Downing, took charge of the improvements of Public Grounds, 

 including the Mall, Smithsonian Grounds, Lafayette Square, 

 and, in conjunction with W. D. Brackenridge, the Smithsonian 

 Grounds. On the death of Downing in 1852 the appropriation 

 by Congress was not renewed and Saul at once went into 

 business for himself at Seventh and N Streets, N. W., where he 

 conducted a seed business for many years. 



From 1831 to 1874 the works by Dr. Leonard Gale and by 

 W. D. Haleyi^ were the only publications relating to the Dis- 

 trict flora and apparently very little botanical collecting was 

 done. A small collection made here about 1860 or earlier by 

 Dr. Arthur Schott,^^ an army surgeon, is now at the Field 

 Museum of Natural History in Chicago. 



^^ For further details of this and other nurseries see Saul, John A. Records 

 of the Columbian Historical Society, 10: 38-62, pis. 2-7. 1907. 



" See Bibliography. He was chief examiner of patents from 1846-1857. For 

 biography see the Gale Genealogy. 



1' See MiLLSPAUGH, C. F. Field Columb. Mus. Pub. Bot. 1; 281, 345. 1896. 



