244 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



entomology, but one whose discoveries, investigations and inventions*, 

 have not only covered him with glory in the scientific world and re- 

 flected honor on his State and country, but who has demonstrated the 

 means by which millions of dollars may annually be saved to the wealth 

 of the nation, by judicious treatment of destructive insects. It ought 

 to be the glory of our State that she retained Mr. Riley in her service 

 for nine years, during which he published those annual reports which 

 are now regarded as classics of the science, and which are monuments 

 of patient and persevering investigation, valuable discovery, and 

 literary, and artistic expression. It was in these reports that the com- 

 plete life histories of the periodical cicada or 17 year locust, the 

 grape phylloxera, the Colorado potato beetle, the apple-root aphis, the 

 plum curculio, the army worm, the Rocky Mountain locust or grass- 

 hopper, and many other prominent insect pests were first worked out, 

 and the proper remedies, or the best possible precautionary measures 

 suggested. 



But Mr. Riley is so well known as an entomologist, inventor, artist 

 and writer, that it is not necessary for me dwell on these points. It 

 may not be so well known that he was an enthusiastic horticulturist 

 and an ardent lover and most successful grower of flowers. As my 

 father, who had been associated with him on the staff of the Prairie 

 Farmer, was the only personal friend he had in St. Louis, he came di- 

 rectly to us on Clark avenue, and, as we were able to give him room^ 

 established his first ofiQce, as well as his home, in our house. Our 

 back yard was as unpromising as the usual run of city yards, as we 

 had not, ourselves, been in possession more than a few months. 



It had two advantages, it was quite deep and extended southward 

 from the house. It boasted two trees, an ( Ailanthous and an old 

 apple, beside the kitchen door. A brick walk extended down the 

 center to the alley gate on each side of which were heaps of ashes,, 

 coal cinders and various other accumulations. But even in all these Mr. 

 Riley's eye saw possibilities, and during our second spring in the city 

 he, with a little help from a man with a wheel-barrow, first effected a 

 general clearing up and then dug up and laid out beds on each side of 

 the walk ; those on one side he arranged should be cultivated by " the 

 girls" — my sisters — while he would take the other side thus to stimu- 

 late all parties by rivalry, to extra exertions. 



The coal cinder was utilized for narrow walks between the beds. 

 A row of corn and one of sun-flowers were planted across the lower 

 end. Along the unsightly board fences were planted tubers of Madeira 

 vine and seeds of morning glories. Then the beds were thickly planted 

 with geraniums, verbenas, plumbago, heliotrope, balsams, ageratuin 



