August 12, 1916 



HOKTICULTURE 



201 



JACKSON DAWSON — IN MEMORIAM 



To an audience of gardeners it is not necessary to say 

 that Jackson Dawson was a great gardener for that is 

 known to all men who cultivate plants, but the friend- 

 ship between us which has lasted for more than forty 

 years and brought us into almost daily association 

 makes it possible for me to say something of Dawson 

 as a man. In all these years he and I have been engaged 

 in forming the museum of trees which is known as the 

 Arnold Arboretum. This has been his life work as it 

 has been mine, and to this work Dawson brought indus- 

 try, enthusiasm, imagination and high skill. The num- 

 ber of plants which he raised for the Arboretum and for 

 its correspondents and friends is surprising. His 

 plants are now widely scattered in many countries, and 

 in many countries they will long keep green the 

 memory of Jackson Dawson — kind friend, untiring in 

 his devotion to duty, fortunate in the reputation which 

 his skill and success brought him, happy in the labor 

 which he loved and in the development of the great 

 garden which he saw, through his labors, gradually grow 

 in usefulness and beautv, and rich in friends who loved 



him. 



f. S J^-'-y^^-^ 



Death the Reaper is ever busy. He spareth neither 

 our nearest nor dearest, friends nor foes. Each hour, 

 each second he busies himself making sorrow in families 

 and gaps in living friendships. Each and all as they 

 Journey through life are made familiar with the 

 Reaper's scythe and in due season all fall before it. 

 Some early, some in their prime, others late ; some at 

 the threshold of their life-work, some at its hey-day, 

 others, and these are the fortunate few, not before the 

 fruition of their labors is apparent to all the world. In 

 this latter category of the select and worthy few belongs 

 our loved friend Jackson T. Dawson who fell asleep on 

 the afternoon of Thursday, August 3rd. Rich in 

 friends, held in honor by all who knew him, fortified 

 with the knowledge of a useful and well spent life he 

 passed into the beyond in the closing days of his 

 seventy-fifth year. Quietly he was beckoned and with- 

 out pain and with a smile of content the summons was 

 answered. From the early days, when he laid aside for 

 a while the tools of his peaceful art to grasp those 

 necessary to defend hearth and home and to help safe- 

 guard his adopted country and subsequently unto the 

 end Jackson Dawson ever answered with promptitude 

 the call of duty. With never a thought of self, but 

 with all Iiis energy and genius concentrated upon the 

 work on hand he lived his life and wrought much for 

 the good of the world and for the advancement of the 

 art and science of Horticulture. 



On the aftemoon of Sunday, April 8th, 1899, more 

 than seventeen years ago, my first knock at the door of 

 his home was answered by his hearty "come right in." 

 The phrase was new to me but it carried a welcome to 

 my heart's ease. I was then a bird of passage, but the 

 few days I spent in the Arnold Arboretum in Jackson 

 Dawson's company were more than ordinarily profitable 

 to me. He, in that generous way of his, showed me all 

 over the establishment and I was astonished and be- 

 wildered at what I saw, more especially at the size of the 



shrubs and trees raised from seeds, cuttings or grafts by 

 the skilled craftsman who was my guide. So much so 

 in fact that when wo came to the Hemlock gi-ove I 

 asked in all innocence "Did you plant those trees too?" 

 Those eyes of his flashed and I could feel their piercing 

 power as he replied "Xo, God Almighty planted them !" 

 After an interim of seven years the fates brought us 

 together again and have not only allowed me to grow 

 in knowledge and appreciation of our friend, but have 

 also forged a strong bond of fellowship and communion. 

 Others have known him a lifetime and all hold him in 

 affection and esteem, the dei>th of which it is not possible 

 to adequately express. He has passed from our ken, 

 but in the legacy he has left behind all may share and 

 in the Arnold Arboretum, which he has helped so much 

 to build, there remain lasting monuments to his skill, 

 liis energy and his patient perseverance. And not alone 

 in the Arnold Arboretum will the results of his work 

 abide, but in the gardens of his many friends rich and 

 poor, in the city parks of this country from east to 

 west, in Europe and in Australasia there are growing 

 today many, many trees and shrubs from seeds sent or 

 from plants rai.sed by him. I mention trees and shrubs 

 init his affection in the matter of plants embraced every 

 kind — moss and fern, tiny rock plant and strong herb, 

 minute alpine from the limits of the Arctic flora, 

 tropical wonder, desert ciu-iosity, the latest novelty, 

 the old timd favorites from New Holland and the Cape 

 of Good Hope. He loved them all and what joy there 

 was in hearing him talk on these his loves ! 



Few men had as many real friends as Jackson Daw- 

 son and none deserved them more than he; full to the 

 ovei-flowing with the milk of human kindness his heart 

 was larger than his frame. Many, very many \vill miss 

 him but the memory of his enthusiasm, his genius and 

 his example will remain as a lode star on the sea of 

 life. He was a man in the world of men and whatso- 

 ever his hand found to do he did it with all his might. 

 Happy and blessed are those of whom this can be said 

 and proud must be the family who call such a man as 

 Jackson T. Dawson father. To the fullness of my 

 cajmcity their grief I share and with them his memory 

 I shall cherish and revere unto the last. 



The horticultural world has again to mourn the loss 

 of one of the greatest workers for its uplift, for during 

 the past half centuiy then' was no man either on this or 

 other Continents that had a better knowledge of trees, 

 shrubs and other hardy ]ilants than did the deceased. 

 His botanical Imowledge and of the history of these 

 plants was remarkable, and while as a propagator he 

 so often labored under the most adverse conditions, 

 there was never a man that could compare with him, 

 and a great many of the plants in the Aniold Arbore- 

 tum will stand as monuments of his skill and tender 

 care, as he resurrected their last spark of life when re- 

 ceived from their foreign habitats either in the shape 

 of seeds, plants, grafts or cuttings. A great many of 

 these plants would have been left in oblivion had they 

 been received and cared for by ordinary hands. Jack- 

 son Dawson was personally genial, unassuming, hard 

 working, and always willing <^o impart to his fellow- 



