Marshall Pinkney Wilder. 183 



beauty, he was fond of experimenting and improving, always 

 carrying with him a camel's hair pencil and a pair of tweez- 

 ers, with which he used to cross-fertilize fruits and flowers at 

 the opportune moment." Many of his seedlings so produced 

 took high rank and brought him considerable sums of 

 money. Strawberries, grapes and pears in numberless varie- 

 ties filled his fmit garden, and their comparative merits 

 were carefully noted by him." 



The confusion of our nomenclature was thus to him made 

 apparent, and in view of which, he became " the father of 

 the American Pomological Society/' and for nearly forty 

 years was its able and only president, and lived to see it 

 become the great power in our land for the conservation and 

 dissemination of pomological science. While this was his 

 favorate society and to which he gave large sums of money 

 and much valuable time, he was the friend and patron of 

 worthy individual and society effort in his own and other 

 states, far beyond any record the world will see. 



For fifty-six years he had been one of the chief supporters 

 of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and provided in 

 in his will for a permanent prize endowment to th&,t society. 



For the last thirty years of his life, Col. Wilder gave him- 

 self largely to the cause of American horticulture, and 

 declining physical vigor seemed to add to his zeal for 

 his favorite pursuit. Unable to attend the twentieth bi- 

 enniel meeting of the American Pomological Society, held 

 at Grand Rapids, Mich., in 1885, he sent most earnest words 

 of congratulation and advice, closing with the following: 

 " I console myself with the hope that you will accept the in- 

 vitation of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and^ 

 come to Boston in 18S7, where I may be permitted to lay off 

 the robes of office with which you have so long honored me, 

 unless ere that time I sball have been clothed with the robes 

 of immortality, and gone up to gather celestial fruits, which 

 ripen not in earthly climes." 



It was a few years ago said of Mr. Wilder, " that he was 

 at once the oldest and youngest man in the state, which 

 migh t be attributed both to his love for rural pursuits and 



