July 13, 1912 



HOETICULTUEE 



41 



WILLIAM R, SMITH 



The impending blow which we have 

 for several weeks realized must short- 

 ly come, has fallen. The great, manly 

 heart of William R. Smith has ceas?d 

 to beat, and horticulture has lost a 

 friend indeed. The long illness from 

 which Mr. Smith had been suffering 

 terminated on Sunday morning, July 7, 

 and he passed quietly away. 



Mr. Smith was born at Athelstone- 

 ford. East Lothian, Scotland. After 

 leaving school he worked in the gar- 

 dens at Fantesy, the 

 residence of the late 

 Thomas Mitchell Innes, 

 after which he served a 

 regular two or three- 

 year appreticeship in 

 the gardens of Lord 

 Elstone, near Dunbar. 

 After serving his ap- 

 prenticeship he went to 

 Arthrey Castle, Lord 

 Abercromby's, near Stir- 

 ling, as a journeyman, 

 where he served 12 

 months. He afterwards 

 worked for the Duke of 

 Atholes at Dunkeld, 

 and from there to 

 Mount Melville Gar- 

 dens, near St. Andrews. 

 After serving 12 months 

 there he got an ap- 

 pointment at the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens at 

 Kew, remaining there 

 two years. He then 

 secured a position at 

 Peter Lawson & Sons' 

 Nurseries at Edinburg, 

 November, 1852, where 

 he studied trees and 

 conifers until nearly 

 the end of January, 

 1S53. He then left for 

 America, sailing from 

 Glasgow, January 2Sth. 

 Going to Philadelphia, 

 he entered Dundass's 

 famous old place on 

 Chestnut street, at that 

 time the finest institu- 

 tion of its kind in the 

 New World. From Dun- 

 dass's Mr. Smith was 

 called to Washington 

 to take charge of ths 

 Botanic Gardens, which 

 existed then in name only, having b;en 

 since the time of George Washington 

 little more than an unreclaimed 

 swamp. The plants brought by Com- 

 modore Charles Wilkes from his arctic 

 expedition in 1S4S formed the nucleus 

 of the Botanic Garden as they then 

 existed. The swamp at that time had 

 the River Tiber nmning through it, 

 enabling Moore to say that what was 

 "Goose Creek once is Tiber now." The 

 filling up of this swamp by Mr. Smith 

 not only enabled him to make of it a 

 thing of beauty, but saved the Na- 

 tional Capital its reputation and made 

 of it a fairly healthy city. During the 

 60 years that have elapsed since, the 

 11 acres of garden have been Mr. 

 Smith's uninterrupted care, and in ad- 

 dition he served for 20 years on the 



parking commission and was instru- 

 mental in the planting of over 100,000 

 shade trees in the avenues of Wash- 

 ington. 



In 1S62 Mr. Smith married and took 

 his young wife to the quaint little 

 colonial cottage in the heart of the 

 garden, where for 15 years they lived 

 in happiness together. Then she was 

 stricken with an illness which de- 

 stroyed her mind, and since that time 

 she has been an inmate of a sani- 



izatlon serves, owe an enormous debt 

 of gratitude. He was an enthusiastic 

 member from its early days, served on 

 its executive board and as president 

 in 1S93, and it was solely due to his 

 indomitable, persistent efforts, extend- 

 ing over 11 years, that the coveted 

 National Charter, passed by both 

 houses of Congress and signed by 

 President McKinley on March 5, 1901, 

 became their prized possession. Up to 

 the last his interest in the society and 

 the welfare of its mem- 

 bers never lagged. His 

 passing takes away one 

 more of the few repre- 

 sentatives of a distinc- 

 tive epoch in Ameriean 

 horticulture remaining 

 on its rolls. He round- 

 ed out a well-filled and 

 useful life. The in- 

 evitable had to come, 

 yet we shall mourn for 

 him and grieve with an 

 inconsolable grief as 

 we realize that the kind 

 old face and loved 

 voice are gone from our 

 meetings and councils 

 forever. His like we 

 shall never see again. 

 Following are some tes- 

 timonials from friends 

 who have intimately 

 known and esteemed 

 Mr. Smith for many 

 years: 



tarium and Mr. Smith has been alone 

 with his plants, his books, his Burns 

 library and his many friends, whom he 

 dearly loved to have accept his hos- 

 pitality. 



Of towering stature — 6 ft. 2 in. tall — 

 lordly of mein, poetic of temperament, 

 with a soul filled with the love of 

 nature, W. R. Smith was a unique and 

 impressive personality. He excelled in 

 all the human sympathies as he did in 

 his physical presence. Everyone felt 

 pround in the friendship of this re- 

 markable man; statesmen and chil- 

 dren, plants and animals, all responded 

 to his magnetic influence, and he loved 

 them all. 



To William R. Smith the Society of 

 American Florists and the entire hor- 

 ticultural profession which that organ- 



From Hon. S. W. Mc- 

 Call. 

 It was a piece of 

 great good fortune to 

 anyone to have Wil- 

 liam R. Smith for a 

 friend. He was a gen- 

 uine Scotchman, and 

 nearly sixty years of 

 residence in a city like 

 Washington, where he 

 knew intimately three 

 generations of the pub- 

 lic men of America, 

 did not tend to obscure 

 any of his strong racial 

 qualities, but served to 

 broaden him and make 

 of him a cosmopolitan 

 Scotchman. His library 

 contained one of the very finest collec- 

 tions that could be found anywhere of 

 the works of Burns and he was a 

 worshipper of that poet. He was a rare 

 Burns scholar, and it was an inspira- 

 tion to listen to his talks about the 

 poet and to his apt quotations from 

 him. His literary interest, however, 

 was not wholly centered in the great 

 poet of Scotland, but its breadth may 

 be seen in the admiration which he 

 had for Shakespeare. 



Mr. Smith was really the creator 

 of the National Botanic Garden, trans- 

 forming an unsightly mire into the 

 beautiful park covered with trees, 

 shrubs and flowers which it is today. 

 The relations of Senators and Repre- 

 sentatives with the Superintendent of 

 the Botanic Garden were almost as 



