28o Annals of Horticulture. 



of prizes. He was always a close observer and had the 

 faculty of turning his observations to good advantage. He 

 early became interested in botany and the arts associated 

 with it, and before he was eighteen years of age had twice 

 obtained the medals offered by the Botanical Society of Edin- 

 burgh for the best herbarium. At sixteen he was appren- 

 ticed to a gardener, and before he came to this country at the 

 age of twenty, he had already written for some of the English 

 horticultural publications. In 1843, with little capital except- 

 ing pluck, industry and a strong constitution, he came to this 

 country, and entered the employ of George Thorburn, Astoria, 

 Long Island. He also worked with the late Robert Buist, and 

 Charles Spang of Pittsburgh. By frugality he accumulated 

 a small capital, and in 1847 he began business as a market 

 gardener in Jersey City.* He worked hard and was success- 

 ful, and for upwards of twenty years this was his principal 

 business. He began the cultivation of ornamental plants, 

 and the business became so great that market gardening was 

 gradually given up. A little later he became a seedsman, 

 and this soon proved the most important part of his business ; 

 at the time of his death he was accounted the most success- 

 ful and widely known seedsman in the country. In 1865 the 

 firm of Henderson & Fleming began business as seedsmen in 

 Nassau street, and afterward it was moved to the present 

 location in Cortlandt, with the firm name so familiar to all 

 gardeners. He was probably the most widely read on matters 

 pertaining to his business of any writer of his time. His 

 contributions were always welcome to any horticultural publi- 

 cation and his books among the best selling published. He 

 always retained an affection for his countrymen and gardeners 

 in general, assisting many of them in different ways. He 

 was a busy man,- but even those nearest him say they could 

 hardly understand how he accomplished so much. He was 

 indefatigable in his efforts to extend his business, his sagacity 

 was rarely at fault, and his activity and observation were 

 ceaseless. His kindly nature and uniform courtesy endeared 

 him to those who met him, even casually, and have been the 

 inspiration of many a young florist. Having a strong consti- 

 tution by nature, he rarely suffered from ill health, a circum- 

 stance which he himself attributed to his practice of spending 

 some hours in the open air each day, working about his 



