1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST 



221 



involving a great sacrifice of time and labor, 

 was the sole work of Pickering and Dr. Bridges, 

 who still lives. 



John Freed. — The many visitoi's to the 

 great Centennial Exhibit will remember the 

 superb collection, of fruit, and among the several 

 excellent commissioners in charge, Mr. John 

 Freed. Of his earnest devotion to the interests 

 of the exhibition, the present writer had excel- 

 lent opportunity to know. No man's exhibit, 

 small or large, was permitted to be overlooked 

 by juries or the public if he could help it, and 

 vet there was never the slightest eftbrt to bias 

 the judgment to be made on the exhibits. The 

 Canadian papers bring to our notice the death of 

 this good man in the sixty-fifth year of his age, 

 and we can join in their view that Canadian 

 Horticulture meets a severe loss in his death. 



GAEDENiNa Longevity. — An old lady, the 

 wife of a gardener, died in England recently, { 

 aged 105, and it is boasted that she had drank 

 •deeply of whiskey every day for twenty 

 years previous. It is generally believed that 

 only for the whiskey she might have lived to a 

 much greater age. Here is the case of an Irish 

 gardener, of whom nothing about whiskey is 

 said, and so it is presumed lie did not imbibe 

 freely, who outlived the poor old lady : 

 jSIr. Thomas Johnson, gardener to Colonel 

 Battersb}', county Meath, for sixty years, died 

 lately at the age of 106. He retained all his 

 faculties to the last. Longevity in his case ap- 

 pears to have been heriditary, for his father, it is 

 said, died at a still riper age, namely 115 years. 



Mr. J. H. McAfee. — Formerly Professor of 

 Horticulture in the Iowa Agricultural College, 

 died at Columbus, Nevada, on the 17th of March, 

 in his forty-fourth year. He was particularly iden- 

 tified with the progress of timber culture in our 

 country. 



Synopticai. Flora of the United States. 

 — Many years ago Torrey and his pupil, Asa 

 Gray, commenced the Flora of the United States ; 

 but by the time the work had reached the Com- 

 .positai or Aster-like plants, the boundaries of 

 the United States had so expanded that for this 

 and other reasons, the work had to stop. Torrey 

 is now no more; but Dr. (jrray still active, 

 though advanced in life, his continued the 

 preparations for a great work, and which is now, 

 we believe, nearly completed. A part of it is 

 now issued, and the rest will soon follow. This 

 ,part starts from where the old work of Torrey 



and Gray left off, and is, therefore, the second 

 part of volume first ; an excellent idea under the 

 circumstances, especially as Watson's Bibliogra- 

 phy, noticed last month, gives all the references 

 to what part first would cover. 



It is to be hoped that Professor Gray will be 

 spared yet many years to see the full completion 

 of what will be a magnificent contribution to 

 American Botany. It is advertised at six dol- 

 lars, but we paid but five for our copy from Mr. 

 John IL Redfield, of the Philadelphia Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, who by purchasing a large 

 quantity, has given his friends the benefit of 

 what commission his work would be entitled to. 



The Native Flowers and Ferns of the 

 United States. — By Thomas Meehan. Illus- 

 trated by chromo-Uthographs,bv L. Prang & Co., 

 Boston. The editor of this journal— the author 

 of the above work, cannot, of course, say any- 

 thing of its value — this he shall leave to his co- 

 temporaries ; but he may be pardoned for saying 

 why it was undertaken, and what he hopes to 

 accomplish. It has always been the aim of his 

 life to aid in spreading intelligence among the 

 whole people. Twenty years ago, before the 

 Gardener's Monthly was thought of, the 

 existing Horticultural magazines appealed only 

 to the wealthier classes. It was thought some- 

 thing might be done for Horticulture and gene- 

 ral intelligence among a ciass that could not 

 subscribe for higher-priced papers. Thus a 

 magazine at two-thirds or t hree- fourths less \n price 

 than any then existing was projected, and the 

 Gardener's Monthly was born. There was 

 no intention of competing with any other maga- 

 zine, but to work in a field wholly its own. 

 Conscious of innumerable imperfections in his 

 ability to manage it, he yet believes it has done 

 some good— at any rate, all the good he ever 

 hoped for it. 



The same feeling induces the present attempt. 

 Botanical works are abundant; but it seems to 

 him there is yet room for a cheap woik for the 

 people. There are thousands who want to know 

 something about wild flowers, who, when they 

 are attracted by some wild waif of Flora, are 

 interested in its history in all its relations to 

 man, but who have not the time, money or 

 opportunities to investigate the subject* Could 

 not something cheap be prepared for these 

 people? This work is the answer. Four colored 

 plates and sixteen pages of letter-press for fifty 

 cents. Can we do more? What our critical 

 friends may have to say of the work we cannot, 



