82 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



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As this number of Cassinia is going through the press, we 

 learn of the death of our Corresponding Member, Josiah Hoopes, 

 at his home in West Chester, Pa., on January 16, 1903. While 

 not an active participant in the meetings of the Club, Mr. 

 Hoopes always maintained a lively interest in everything con- 

 nected with ornithology, and a warm welcome and hearty 

 hospitality awaited any bird-lover who visited him. Some fif- 

 teen years ago Mr. Hoopes began the formation of a collection 

 of North American land birds in which every species and race 

 were to be represented by a selected series of skins. He pur- 

 chased only first class specimens and soon amassed a collection 

 that for beauty and neatness of arrangement has seldom been 

 equalled. A few years since, the collection, then numbering 

 nearly 8,000 skins, was purchased by the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, and the investigations of many stu- 

 dents have since benefited from it. 



Mr. Hoopes was born at West Chester, November 9, 1832, 

 the son of Pierce Hoopes and Sarah Andrews Hoopes. He was 

 educated in Philadelphia, where his family resided during his 

 boyhood, and in 1850 returned to West Chester. He had 

 always been deeply interested in botany, and determining to 

 make this his business, he opened in 1853 a small greenhouse, 

 which has to-day grown into one of the largest nursery estab- 

 lishments in the United States, under the firm name of Hoopes 

 Brothers and Thomas. He spent some time in travel, vLsiting 

 the various botanic gardens of Europe, and contributed numer- 

 ous articles to horticultural journals, besides writing the "Book 

 of Evergreens." He was active in all the educational undertak- 

 ings of his native town, and was in other respects a pubhc- 

 spirited citizen. In 1866 he joined the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, and for some years was closely associated with Cassin, 

 Turnbull, Bernard Hoopes and other ornithologists of that time 

 — for botany being his business, birds were always his recreation. 



It is a pleasure to recall his deep interest and enthusiasm at 

 the Congress of the A. 0. U. in Philadelphia four years ago, 

 when he met for the first time the present leaders in his favorite 

 science. 



