June IS, 1910 



HORTI CULTURE. 



921 



Obituary, 



M. Ernest Calvat. 



American lovers of the chrysanthe- 

 mum will learn with great regret of 

 the sudden death of the most eminent 

 of all the European seedling growers, 

 M. Ernest Calvat, of Grenoble. We 

 were made acquainted with the sad 

 fact while away in Paris at the Inter- 

 national Spring Show there, and it was 

 unanimously agreed by chrysanthe- 

 mum men and others alike, that Eu- 

 ropean horticulture has suffered an ir- 

 reparable loss. 



Calvat was beyond doubt the great- 

 est chrysanthemum seedling raiser 

 that ever lived. He practically in a 

 few years eclipsed every living rival 

 ■by the extraordinary success that his 

 novelties met with, which is all the 

 more surprising when we remember 

 that he began as a pure amateur. He 

 literally burst upon the chrysanthe- 

 mum world without warning, aston- 

 ished all the old growers by his nov- 

 ■elties which were an entirely new race 

 and for many years held his own on 

 the show tables of our e.xhibitions, 

 from which his seedlings swept every- 

 thing that had been grown a few years 

 previously. His phenomenal success 

 was without a record. It was sharp, 

 decisive and revolutionary to a degree. 

 and his fame is written in letters of 

 gold in the annals of the chrysanthe- 

 mum tor all time. His first seedlings 

 were sent out in 1S91, in which year 

 he exhibited them at a floral meeting 

 of the National Chrysanthemum Soci- 

 ety of London. 



We well remember the intense curi- 

 osity with which the products of this 

 then unknown grower were examined 

 "by the visitors and members of the 

 committee and the cordial reception 

 they met with. Mrs. C. Harnian Payni^ 

 and Comtesse de Galbert were both 

 awarded first-class certificates and an- 

 other called Exposition de Grenoble 

 was commended. Then followed a 

 grand rush for his novelties as they 

 were sent out year by year, until they 

 were almost universally grown the 

 wide world over. 



It would take up too much space to 

 enumerate a list of his most famous 

 flowers, but turning to his catalogues 

 we are reminded of some of the most 

 important. In 1S92 he onnt r^-t L'ami 

 Etienne, L'Isere, Louise, Mme. Ed. 

 Key, Mile. Therese Rey, Mrs. C. Har- 

 man Payne, Prefet Robert, President 

 Borrel, a fine lot out of many others. 

 In lS9o, his collection included, Com- 

 mandant Blusset, Mile. Therese Panck- 

 oucke, M. Panckoucke, Souvenir de 

 Petite Amie, etc. The 1S94 collection 

 ■contained Amiral Avellan, Le Meije, 

 Xie Colosse Grenoblois, the famous 

 Mme. Carnot, and others not now so 

 well known. Among the best of 1895, 

 there were Boule d'Or, Le Moucherotte, 

 M. Chenon de Leche, Reine d'Anglet- 

 erre. Surprise. The year 1S96 saw the 

 distribution of what he termed the 

 "Jubilee Set," as a compliment to the 

 English N. C. S., which in that year 

 celebrated the 50th anniver.=ary of its 

 existence. Calvat's Australian Gold, 

 Mme. Gustave Henry, Mrs. .1. Lewis, 

 Ma Perfection, were among them. The 

 next year his famous green variety 

 Mme. Ed. Roger, Mme. Ferlat, N. C. S. 



Jubilee, Topase Orientale, Mile Lucie 

 Paure, Pres't Nonin, and others, made 

 their appearance and so we might go 

 on enumerating flowers that have won 

 high positions for themselves and re- 

 dounded to the credit and renown of 

 their raiser. 



As we had the privilege of a person- 

 al acquaintance with our old and es- 

 teemed friend tor many years, his loss 

 comes with an unexpected blow. He 

 was a most genial, courteous and 

 agreeable French gentleman of the 

 best type. He was partly educated in 

 England and then returned to Prance, 

 where he entered the glove making es- 

 tablishment of his father, a former 

 mayor of Grenoble. On his father's 

 retirement the subject of our notice be- 

 came head of the firm and in his spare 

 moments amused himself with garden- 

 ing, roses being his first favorites. It 

 was not till 1SS7 that the chrysanthe- 

 mum attracted his attention, and then 



M. Earnest Calvat. 



everything else was discarded with the 

 view of practicing a systematic cross- 

 fertilization with the then known larg- 

 est varieties, so as to obtain a new 

 race of high-class show flowers. How 

 he succeeded the world already knows. 

 On the Continent of Europe he was 

 a frequent exhibitor at all the leading 

 shows and received honors and awards 

 innumerable. His groups of blooms 

 were all composed of big, solid, mas- 

 sive Japanese or incurving Japanese, 

 denoting high culture and were usually 

 the sight of the show. We ourselves 

 have seen them at places as widely 

 apart as Lille, Paris, Tours, Caen, 

 Lyons and elsewhere. In his own 

 country he was f<icile princein and only 

 the last time we met him his kindly 

 disposition manifested itself towards 

 us in an unexpected way when our 

 youngest boy at Vouvray made a child- 

 ish i-emark that caused a hearty ripple 

 of undisguised laughter from M. Cal- 

 vat, who said, "I will name one of my 

 new chrysanthemums after your little 



son." And true to his word Alec 

 Payne figures in this year's list of his 

 novelties as a remembrance and in 

 recognition of an amusing observation 

 by a little English boy of five years 

 of age when on a visit to France. 



Calvat was only 5S years of age and 

 might, had he been spared, still have 

 accomplished much useful work. Per- 

 sonally and from a horticultural point 

 of view we deplore his untimely end, 

 for many years will come and go be- 

 fore the world shall see another to 

 take his place. He was an Honorary 

 Fellow of the N. C. S., a vice-president 

 of the French Chrysanthemum Society, 

 and president of the Grenoble Horti- 

 cultural Society. He had received sev- 

 eral honorary distinctions, viz.. Com- 

 mander of the Merite Agricole, Knight 

 of the Order of the Crown of Italy. He 

 was the holder also of a Tunisian or- 

 der and officer of the French Academy. 



We are sure that many of our read- 

 ers will Join with us in offering to his 

 bereaved family the assurance of our 

 profound sympathy and condolence 

 with them in the great loss they have 

 so unexpectedly sustained. 



C. HARMAN PAYNE. 



Frank De Witt. 

 Frank De Witt, a florist and gar- 

 dener of 22S5 Pitkin avenue, Brook- 

 lyn, N. Y., was drowned in the Bay 

 near Freeport, L. I., June 9th. 



James McNab. 

 James McNab, florist, of Cafonsville, 

 Md., a member of the Gardeners' and 

 Florists' Club of Baltimore, died at 

 Atlantic City, N. J., on June 13. 



H. J. Billings. 



H. 3. Billings, florist, of Rockland, 

 Me., died suddenly Sunday, June 5th. 

 He had been ill but a few days and 

 his death was a severe blow to his 

 family, and caused deep sorrow to his 

 many friends. 



Frank Linowski. 



Frank Linowski died at Bay City, 

 Mich., Saturday, June 4th. Up to the 

 time of his illness he had been em- 

 ployed for a long period of years by 

 Boehringer Bros., florists, and had a 

 large circle of acquaintances. He is 

 survived by two brothers and one sis- 

 ter at whose home he died. 



NEWS NOTES. 



The Fernwood Nursery Co., of Stam- 

 ford, Conn., have given up their office 

 and salesroom at 50 W. 30 street. New 

 York City. 



Seitaro Aria, with five of his staff, 

 have gone to the Loochoo Islands to 

 inspect the bulb fields there. Loochoo 

 longiflorums turned out very fine last 

 year. 



The hail and wind storm of Thurs- 

 day, June 9th, did considerable dam- 

 age to glass in the vicinity of St. 

 Louis. Richard Prow and the Eggel- 

 ing Floral Co., suffered most and some 

 of the parks lost a few fine large trees. 



Abington, Mass. — The selectmen 

 have offered a reward for the appre- 

 hension of the person who destroyed 

 a large amount of valuable shrubbery 

 at the Bay State Nurseries, in the 

 hope that the offender will be caught. 

 Private citizens also stand ready to 

 add to the reward. 



