i88 



THE GARDENERS' MONTHLY 



[June, 



a prolonged citation of authorities. Judgment 

 affirmed." 



To our mind this is a much more important 

 decision than that of some of the lower courts, 

 from which no appeal has been taken, and which 

 have excited so much consternation among seeds- 

 men. Here the case was decided by a court pre- 

 sided over by very able judges — the Common 

 Pleas of Philadelphia. An appeal was taken to 

 the Supreme Court, and the decision again sus- 

 tained. 



The judges must be answerable for the law. 

 Common sense will endorse it. Any one can tell 

 for himself whether a seed is good or not by 

 cutting a few open. If good it has a whitish or 

 natural look; if bad a brownish or unnatural one. 

 If the seed be small a fifty-cent pocket lens will 

 tell it for him ; and for any judge to decide that 

 one who sells a ten-cent package of seed should 

 have to pay hundreds of dollars in "consequential 

 damages," because a man sowed bad seeds which 

 he might have known for himself were bad, is too 

 absurd for contemplation. The funny papers tell 

 us that when Henry Ward Beecher first went to 

 farming, he planted pieces of dried apples in 

 order to raise that particular kind. It is a pity 

 that the joker did not wait longer for another idea 

 from some modern judge and make Mr. Beecher 

 sue the grocer who sold the dried apples, (or 

 damages because they did not come up ! 



The Earliest Nursery in the United 

 States. — We are inclined to claim for German- 

 town the credit of starting the earliest nursery in the 

 United States. Of course Bartram's garden is 

 older as a garden, and as its owner was a plant 

 collector, and sold plants from his garden, it was 

 in some sort a nursery. But the general propa- 

 gation of fruits and flowers as a regular business 

 seems to have been first made a business of by 

 Christian Lehman, of Germantown, now the 

 Twenty-second Ward, of the city of Philadelphia. 



We copy the following advertisement from the 

 Pennsylvania Chronicle and Universal Advertiser, 

 from Monday, May 9, to Monday, May 16, 1768 : 

 " Germantown, April 12th, 1768. 

 "TO BE SOLD. 



"A choice parcel of well-grown young English 

 Walnut trees as well as Pear and Apricot, and a 

 curious variety of the best and largest sorts (from 

 England) of grafted Plumb trees, fit for trans- 

 planting this spring or next fall, as well as a great 

 variety of beautiful double Hyacinth roots, and 

 Tulip roots, next summer season, and most other 

 things in the flower or fruit tree nursery way. 



"Christian Lehman. 



"N. B.— We likewise (on request and if bespoke 

 in time) maketh up parcels of curious plants, 

 shrubs, and seeds of the growth of this climate in 

 such a manner as best secures them according to 

 what country or climate they are designed to be 

 transported." 



Lehman's Nursery was where Chelten Avenue 

 now is, and extended southwardly — all built over 

 now. Many of his trees are still standing in 

 Germantown especially Pear trees and English 

 Walnut, of which there may be perhaps a hundred 

 all told, bearing freely almost every year. 



Nurseries of B Mann & Sons, Lansing, 

 Mich. — These were started but 12 years ago, 

 8 years ago having but one 11 by 24 feet house. 

 They have now about 3,ooofeet of ground covered 

 by glass for cut flowers, and about 15 acres of 

 ground around them. Mrs. Mann superintends 

 the making up of the cut flower department. 

 They are also largely engaged in market gardening, 

 and have 12 acres in small fruits. 



David LIouglas — the botanist after whom the 

 Douglas Spruce and so many beautiful American 

 plants were named, began life as an under- 

 gardener in Scone Palace, so famous in the 

 political history of Scotland. 



Nursery of Mr. A. Giddings, of Danville, 

 Indiana. — The greenhouses in the city cover 

 8,000 feet and are warmed by Carmody's sectional 

 water heater. The leading cut flower work of the 

 city is furnished from these houses. Mr, Giddings 

 was in early — or rather earlier life — for he is yet 

 far below middle age, a wholesale merchant in 

 the town, and the nursery and florist business in 

 which he has been so eminently successful has 

 been the outcome of a natural love joined with 

 excellent business abilities. 



Mr. George Rosenham. — As the West builds 

 up it will become more and more an interesting 

 historical question, who were the earliest nursery- 

 men in the several sections, and we are always 

 glad to place on record all the facts in connection 

 with this subject. We are indebted to a corre- 

 pondent for the following account of an excellent 

 pioneer in this good work at Tipton, Mo.: 



" The death of Mr. Geo. Rosenham, a gardener, 

 nurseryman and florist, occured on the 19th of 

 April at his home in Tipton, Mo. Mr. Rosenham 

 has been a reader of the Gardeners' Monthly 

 for several years. He was born in Prussia, Janu- 

 ary 6th, 1824. From there became to this country 

 in 1849, and settled down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, 

 where he lived till 1865, and then came to 



