228 TRANSACTIONS OF THE HORTICULTURAL 



great business ; but, like the old United States mail in this country, 

 and the four-in-hand coaches of older countries, finally had to suc- 

 cumb to the iron horse. One can, occasionally, see the ghost of one 

 even now, but they are sorry specimens of an almost extinct race ; 

 like the buffalo of the plains, — all but a memory. Why, even the 

 first florist to the then wild, wild west came by wagon. It was, 

 however, now a long time ago — 1833, I think. I am proud to say 

 I knew him well : a gentleman of the old school, but of the sterling 

 kind. 



Early in this century he was a very successful florist in London. 

 I never meet his name, which I sometimes do, but its memory is 

 pleasant. Recently, in a London horticultural paper, it occurred, as 

 the importer, at that time, and by his own collector of new plants 

 from China, of one of the Azalea family. I think, also, the magnifi- 

 cent Norfolk Island pine was mentioned. Fancy a man, in 1833, 

 surrounded by the comforts of a successful business man in that 

 great city, London, pulling up stakes, as the saying is, almost load- 

 ing down a small vessel with family (he had nine children), and 

 horticultural supplies, and starting for the New World. His name 

 was Samuel Brooks, and to him is the honor of building the first 

 greenhouse in Chicago, if not in the West, It was located at the corner 

 of Clark and Adams, most of you know, now in the very heart of 

 the City of Chicago. 



He pushed west from New York by the Hudson river and canal 

 to Canada, hearing such glowing accounts of the country ; but for 

 florists' purposes he did not find it answer to the rosy reports. 

 Chicago then, as later, made some noise in the world. It was 

 described to him as a glorious country, — peaches would grow out of 

 doors, land rich, cattle wintered without any sheds, and land (open 

 prairie), could be got for a dollar and a quarter per acre. These 

 statements decided him. He provided wagons and loaded them. It 

 took him two months to make the trip. Members of that family 

 have made it since in a day. But there was pleasure in the trip, the 

 young people enjoyed it, and our florist pioneer could botanize by 

 the way, which,' with the one-day trip now, cannot be done. 



The glowing account of the country received a bitter check, 

 however, in October, when he arrived. The early winter weather of 

 the year being such that he found the ground frozen up tight with 

 an early frost, and the winter that followed proved to be a severe 

 one, and the only available house he could get was an unplastered 

 shanty. Chicago was then but a frontier town, and not a very favor- 

 able out-look for a London florist. Nevertheless, he, to use a common 

 phrase, hung on, and lived to see that frontier village grow to a 

 • magnificent city of several hundred thousand inhabitants, and was 

 followed to his long home by a concourse of friends, including the 

 florists of the city, of which he was, undoubtedly, the pioneer in that 

 line. 



