1880. 



Al^D HORTICULTURIST. 



131 



are gone, and vitality seriously weakened. | were offered as having greenhouses filled with 

 There ought to be some law to protect the pub- j tropical plants ; and to show indisputably that 

 lie from the e^ect of improvements that rob us | there was some general taste for horticulture, at 



of shade as well as drinking fountains. The 

 one is quite as essential to comfort as the other. 



No. 3. Another new comer has taken posses- 

 sion of a large homestead where unusual atten- 

 tion had been given to choice evergreens. He 

 has trimmed up the Norways to eight feet, in 

 order to admit of ploughing. Though in front 

 of his house, they are sheared into uniform 

 sugar loaves. Eleven green sugar loaves stand 

 on their bottoms to delight his 63*6 with their 

 charming symmetry. 



No. 4. This improvement takes in a river 

 front. That is, a small river crosses the street, 

 and divides the property. The banks of this 

 stream were famously beautiful for superb wil- 

 lows that hung over and interlocked their 

 branches as far down as the eye could discover. 

 By some law of aesthetics quite recondite, our 

 neighbor has been impelled to saw off all of 

 these at a height of twenty feet, and allow 

 them to grow up into enormous round tufts. 

 This improvement seems to come into the class 

 of experiments made for a love of change. 



These improvements indicate four classes of 

 mischief makers. We all get to have a just 

 share in our neighbor's horticultural delights, 

 and he has no right to first give us a pleasure 

 and then take it away. As I suggested above, 

 a tree planted in the street, is like a drinking 

 fountain presented to the public ; it is a gift, and 

 no longer wholly private property. 



" One harvest from your field 



Homeward bring your oxen strong; 

 But another crop your acres yield 

 Which I gather in a song." 



ESSAY ON HORTICULTURAL PROGRESS. 



BY PETER HENDERSON. 

 Read before the New York Horticultural Society, March 9, 1880 



The first botanic garden of which we can obtain 

 record was established in Philadelphia by John 

 Partram in 1728, which gave an impetus to hor- 

 ticultural taste in that city that enabled it for 

 many years, probably up to 1850, to claim as 

 possessing the finest collections of plants both 

 private and commercial, of any city in the Union. 

 New York started later, although we find that j tor of the 



that early period, we find that in 1751 a pottery 

 at Whitestone, L. I., is under way and advertises 

 "that any person desirous may be supplied with 

 urns and flower pots to adorn gardens." In 1767, 

 "William Prince, of Flushing, offered a great 

 variety of fruit trees, such as Pear, Apple, Peach 

 and Plum, packed so they can be safely sent to 

 Europe ! And later in 1774 in the New York 

 Mercurij of that year, this enterprising horti- 

 culturist has added ornamental trees to his 

 grounds, and offers the magnolias of the Caro- 

 linas, and other rare trees and shrubs. Mr. 

 Prince was an enthusiast in all departments of 

 horticulture, and by the beginning of the present 

 century, had added to his nursery of fruit and 

 ornamental trees, a greenhouse department, 

 which contained a very full collection for that 

 time; and in a Short Treatise on Horticulture 

 which he published in 1828, he describes 37 

 varieties of Camellias, 13 species of Amaryllis, 

 90 varieties of Dahlias, and 67 species and va- 

 rieties of Pelargoniums, as being a portion of his 

 collection at that time. The Prince Nursery at 

 Flushing was then known as the Linnsean Bo- 

 tanic Garden, and had by the wonderful energy of 

 its proprietor a rare and interesting collection of 

 trees and plants, some of which were eventually 

 lost to cultivation until again introduced here 

 from Japan by Mr. Thomas Hogg, notably 

 among which was the Japanese Persimmon, now 

 creating considerable attention as a new fruit for 

 our Southern States. Another botanist, Dr. David 

 Hosack, started the Elgin Botanic Garden in this 

 city in 1801, and in his catalogue for 1811, appear 

 nearly 3000 species of plants, of which 500 were 

 greenhouse exotics. The Curator of the Elgin 

 Botanic Garden, at that time was a Mr. Denni- 

 son, who began business as a florist in this city in 

 1814, at a point near where the Fifth Avenue 

 Hotel now stands; and which at his death in 

 1822, was leased to Thomas Hogg, father of the 

 present Thomas Hogg, to whom the world is so 

 much indebted for his valuable introductions of 

 Japan plants. A Mr. William Wilson, a cotem- 

 porary of Thomas Hogg, was the author of a book 

 on Kitchen Gardening, and was also the origina- 

 first Horticultural Society in New 



as early as 1750, places were advertised for sale ; York, in 1818. Another prominent horticul- 

 on Long Island, and among the inducements | turist of that day was Mr. Thomas Bridgeman, 

 offered to purchasers, it was mentioned that they j who kept a seed store at 17th street and Broad- 

 had flower gardens attached; and in 1756 others 1 way, which is still managed by his descendants. 



