EARLY BOTANISTS AND BOTANICAL SECTION. 53 



year or two in its new home, but it seldom becomes established 

 sufficiently to blossom, and after lingering for a while it generally 

 gives up the struggle for existence. But Dr. Booth had a splendid 

 bush of this Rhododendron which he transplanted thirty years ago 

 from its native woods, and which is still every season covered with 

 its beautiful pink blossoms. 



The generous spirit in which he placed everything in his 

 domain at the disposal of his friends added another charm to visits 

 there, and a walk around his grounds was always full of interest 

 and delight. After taking his visitors all around his garden and 

 noting every rare plant and flower, he would invariably say : "And 

 now we will have some practical botany," and this "practical 

 botany" consisted in sampling the choicest fruits of his orchard. 



One rare specimen which Dr. Booth raised, and of which he 

 was very proud, is a large tree, a hybrid between the English Walnut 

 and the Butternut. This tree has attracted the attention of many 

 botanists, and Dr. Charles S. Sargent, of the Arnold Arboretum, 

 once paid it a visit. 



When quite young, Dr. Booth became interested in botany, 

 and such was his reputation in that study that when it was pro- 

 posed to found a college at Havana, N. Y. , he was offered a posi- 

 tion as Professor of Botany. The endowment of Cornell University 

 by Ezra Cornell prevented the building of the proposed college at 

 Havana, and thus Dr. Booth lost a position which he would have 

 filled with honor and credit to himself, and profit to the cause of 

 education. 



Dr. Booth was a charter member of the Botanical Section, 

 and for many years a regular attendant at its meetings and a con- 

 tributor of papers and material for examination. He was a man 

 of wide reading and extended research, a fine general botanist, and 

 exceedingly careful in determining specimens. His explorations 

 around Irondequoit Bay were so thorough that he seemed to know 

 every foot of ground. He was the first botanist in this country to 

 discover the blossoms of Lemna trisulca, and is so credited in the 

 Fifth Edition of Gray's Botany. In our List of Plants of this 

 Vicinity, published in 1896, he is credited with many rare plants, and 

 in our Supplementary List, lately published, he is authority for a 

 large number of species. 



