THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



Philippe de Vilmorin traveled widely, visiting nearly all parts 

 of the world, but he was so modest and unobtrusive that it is diffi- 

 cult to discover records of his travels in the horticultural press. 

 His journeys have been referred to as " veritable scientific mis- 

 sions," yet their results are recorded only in scattered profes- 

 sional papers, and in the growth of the living collections and the 

 herbarium at Verrieres. He was in America repeatedly ; how 

 many times, the writer is unable to say. His first visit was prob- 

 ably in boyhood, with his father ; presumably he accompanied 

 his father to Chicago at the time of the World's Fair, in 1893 ; 

 and he was also here in the United States after his father's 

 death. He visited the New York Botanical Garden in the days 

 of its beginnings. In November, 1901. he was the guest of honor 

 at a dinner at the Hotel Bellevue, Philadelphia, tendered to him 

 by the Seedsman's League. 



Upon the outbreak of the present war he at once devoted him- 

 self to the service of his country. His health was not sufficiently 

 robust to permit work with the army in the field, but he was sent 

 on a mission to London to represent French agricultural interests 

 there, and upon his return devoted himself to the particular lines 

 of horticultural research which promised the most immediate 

 results of benefit to the nation. 



It was thus that, although a soldier, he was pursuing his peace- 

 ful researches at his home at Verrieres-le-Buisson when death 

 suddenly ended his career, June 29, 191 7. With his departure, 

 French agriculture and horticulture have lost their most brilliant 

 devotee. In his brief career he had added his full share to the 

 scientific fame of his illustrious ancestors. 



John Hendley Barnhart. 



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