•] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



381 



some poor man succeeds in doing some good sci- 

 entific work. Recently a book has been issued 

 about a poor Scotchman who managed to get 

 together a very fair herbarium of Scotch plants, 

 and all accurately named. The book is very pleas- 

 ant reading, and it is also pleasant to know that 

 in the old world such merit is so well recognized. 

 Our point is, that such merit is not rare in this 

 country, and the name which heads this is an illus- ] 

 trious example. He had nothing whatever, in 

 early life, to attract him to botany. He simply 

 loved his native wild flowers, got books and 

 studied them, and was indeed a first-class botanist 

 before those who were known as such, knew he 

 was among them. No better testimonial to the 

 success of his early endeavors could be offered, 

 than the fact that he became one of the most 

 valuable Curators which such a world-renowned 

 institution as the Academy of Natural Sciences, of 

 Philadelphia, ever had. We give place to the fol- 

 lowing paragraph, from the Philadelphia Public 

 Ledger and the North American, in relation to his 

 death, at 62 years: "Vice President Thomas 

 Meehan, having taken the chair, at the last meet- 

 ing of the Academy of Natural Sciences, an- 

 nounced the death on the 7th instant of the 

 Curator-in-charge, Charles F. Parker. He alluded 

 in feeling terms to the worth of the deceased as a 

 man and his efficiency as an officer. Mr. Parker 

 was elected a member of the Academy in 1865. 

 Although during the greater part of his life he had 

 been compelled to devote himself to mechanical 

 employment, he had acquired a taste for natural 

 history, which he lost no opportunity of satisfying 

 by much more than a superficial study of plants 

 and shells. As a botanist, especially, even before 

 his connection with the Academy, he was well- 

 known to Gray, Torrey, Bebb, and other dis- 

 tinguished authorities, and but few specialists 

 considered it advisable to conclude their investiga- 

 tions of particular groups of plants without applying 

 to Mr. Parker for the use of his illustrative ma- 

 terial. The study ot the plants of Ne\^ Jersey 

 always remained his own special province, and 

 both in the completeness of his herbarium and the 

 accuracy of his knowledge of its contents he had 

 few if any equals. His active sympathy with the 

 objects of the Academy caused him, even before 

 his election to membership, to be an energetic 

 worker in several of the departments of the muse- 

 um, and, when formally associated with the society, 

 devoted all the time he could spare from his work 

 as proprietor and superintendent of the bindery 

 department of " Godey's Lady's Book " to the ar- 



rangement of the herbarium, in co-operation with 

 Messrs. Durand, Meehan, Burk and Redfield. 

 His connection with the establishment alluded to 

 had secured for him in the business world an envi- 

 able reputation for accuracy, reliability and un- 

 swerving integrity, and when, in 1873, he was 

 elected one of the four curators of the Academy, it 

 was evident that the Society would consult its best 

 interests by making him responsible custodian of 

 the collections. As it was becoming every day 

 more evident that dependence could no longer be 

 placed solely upon volunteer labor for the care and 

 increase of the museum, Mr. Parker was appointed 

 Curator-in-charge by the Council, and was shortly 

 afterwards able, by an arrangement of his business 

 affairs, to give his whole time to the Academy. 

 How thoroughly and with what singleness of pur- 

 pose he devoted himself to his official duties will 

 not soon be forgotten by his associates. He was 

 almost morbidly anxious to perform his work in 

 such manner as to render faultfinding or adverse 

 criticism impossible. The means at the disposal 

 of the Academy were not sufficient to enable him 

 to emplojf an assistant, and the actual manual 

 work of the arrangement, as well as the general 

 scientific determination of much of the material 

 added to the museum during his administration 

 was performed by himself. Those only who are 

 acquainted with museum management are aware 

 of the vast amount of labor involved in the orderlv 

 arrangement ot natural objects. His associates 

 had become so well aware of his neatness and dex- 

 terity of manipulation, and his systematic appor- 

 tionment of time, combined with a certain instinct 

 of orderly arrangement, that they had ceased to 

 wonder at the results attained, but visitors from 

 establishments of a like kind frequently expressed 

 their amazement that so much could be accom- 

 plished by one individual. To workers in science, 

 whether the members and students of the Academy 

 or visitors desirous of consulting special collections, 

 he always gave active sympathy and assistance. 

 Although he may be succeeded by one having a 

 more general knowledge of natural history in its 

 several departments, or a more profound knowl- 

 edge of a specialty, the Academy will probably 

 not be able to secure the services of any one 

 person able to perform the same work as economi- 

 cally and efficiently." 



Frederick Vervaene. — The name of Ver- 

 vaene is connected with so many well-known flow- 

 ers under cultivation that the following note, which 

 we find in a New York paper, will be interesting 

 to many readers : 



