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THE GARDENERS MONTHLY 



[December, 



which Anacreon describes the superstition of the 

 Greeks, who innocently believed the rose pro- 

 tected the remains of the dead. 



"When pain afflicts and sickness grieves, 

 Its juice the drooping heart relieves ; 

 And after death its odors shed, 

 A pleasing fragrance o'er the dead. 

 And when its withering charms decay. 

 And sinking, fading, die away, 

 Triumphant o'er the rage of time. 

 It keeps the fragrance of its prime." 



Happily for us, the present halcyon time in 

 which we live is appropriately designated " the 

 age of flowers." And after a close observation 

 of the old and new, it thus appears to the writer's 

 conception of what will come to pass "after we 

 have shuffled off this mortal coil ;" we are des- 

 tined to sleep in some beautiful umbrageous 

 spot, "where soft vernal fragrance clothes the 

 earth," as nature fashioned it ; or the imitative 

 landscape gardener has deftly laid out, " where 

 sighs of devotion are breathing of flowers." 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



To Intelligent Correspondents.— J.W commu- 

 nications relating to advertisements, subscriptions, 

 or other business, must be addressed to the pub- 

 lisher, 814 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. 



All re/erring to the reading matter of the maga- 

 zine must be mailed to the editor, Germantown, Pa. 



No express packages for the editor received unless 

 prepaid ; and marked " Paid through to German, 

 town. Pa." 



Patrick Barry (See Frontispiece).— In ac- 

 cordance with a plan formed a few years 

 ago, to give to our readers, as a frontispiece to 

 the annual volume, a portrait of some one of 

 our own times who may have been distinguished 

 in horticultural literature, we now off'er one of 

 Mr. P. Barry, whose pen has had a widespread 

 influence on the great advance which horticul- 

 ture has made in America during the past quar- 

 ter of a century. In fruit culture especially, 

 Mr. Barry's services stand pre-eminent. He had 

 long been known as an effective writer through 

 papers in different periodicals, when in 1852 his 

 first great work " The Fruit Garden" appeared. 

 This was so popular that another edition was 

 issued in 1855. In 1852, Mr. A. J. Downing was 

 drowned during the burning of the Henry Clay 

 on the Hudson River, and the Horticulturist, 

 which with Mr. Luther Tucker, of Albany, he 



had established, was purchased by James Vick, 

 and edited by Mr. Barry, in whose hands it re- 

 mained two years, until 1854, when it was sold to 

 the Smiths in Philadelphia. The greatest work 

 of Mr. Barry, however, is probably the " Cata- 

 logue of the American Pomological Society," the 

 preparation of which, as chairman of the com- 

 mittee, has been chiefly his work. This is the 

 great guide for American fruit culturists, and 

 has long been the admiration of the world. 

 Until recently the association had a vice-presi- 

 dent from every State, but no one especially 

 designated as vice-president of the whole body. 

 The office was created a few years ago, and Mr. 

 Barry unanimously chosen as first vice presi- 

 dent, to which office he was re-elected at the 

 last meeting. 



For more than twenty years he has been 

 President of the Western New York Horticul- 

 tural Society, one of the most useful and flour- 

 ishing of its kind in the United States. 



He has also taken an active interest in agri- 

 cultural affairs, has been President of the New 

 York State Agricultural Society, and is at present 

 a member of the Board of Control of the New 

 York State Agricultural Experiment Station. 



As a nurseryman, Mr. Barry's career is well 

 known ; and in connection with Mr. Ellwanger 

 is regarded as among the remarkable horticul- 

 tural events of our times. Yet this success has 

 not been the result of mere favorable circum- 

 stances, as some young men are apt to believe, 

 but by the steady cultivation of honest business 

 ability, which is within the reach of all who 

 persistently try to deserve success. Indeed there 

 are many who had much greater early horti- 

 cultural advantages than Mr. Barry, for it was 

 not till after his immigration from the Old 

 World that he turned his attention to horticul- 

 tural pursuits. His father was a farmer near 

 the city of Belfast, Ireland, where Patrick Barry 

 was born in 1816. He was given a good educa- 

 tion, and at eighteen was appointed school mas- 

 ter of one of the national schools. Two years 

 later he resigned in order to try his fortune in 

 the New World. In his twentieth year we find 

 him acting as clerk in the then celebrated Linnsean 

 nurseries of the Princes at Flushing, in which 

 capacity he served four years, having achieved in 

 that time, with his wonderful facilities for learn- 

 ing, a thorough knowledge of the nursery busi- 

 ness. Fixing on Rochester as the most eligible 

 location, he formed a partnership with Mr. Ell- 

 wanger, and started business on seven acres of 



