Necrology of i8go. 293 



materia medica in the College of Pharmacy of the city of New York, and 

 also established connection with the Cooper Union as lecturer upon botany 

 and allied subjects, while at the same time prosecuting his study of the 

 Mexican boundary collection of plants, the results of which were published 

 in the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 



The degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon him in 1859 by 

 the New York Medical College, and in the same year Dr. Thurber accepted 

 the professorship of botany and horticulture in the Michigan Agricultural 

 College, a position which he filled with great credit to the institution and 

 himself until his resignation in 1863, when he assumed the editorship of the 

 American Agriculturist, which honorable and difficult position he held with 

 singular success for twenty-two years, when he was forced by failing health 

 to relinquish the active control of the journal, while still contributing to its 

 columns and aiding substantially in its management by his wide experience 

 and wise counsel. 



While Dr. Thurber has done a vast amount of solid work as explorer, 

 lecturer, professor and scientist, it was as editor that he performed the great- 

 est work for the American people. An editor who is well able to judge has 

 said; " His writings were characterized always by sound common sense, 

 based on exact knowledge of many subjects, and they did more, in his time, 

 to elevate the standing of the agricultural and horticultural press of the 

 country than the writings of any other man." 



Soon after assuming his editorial labors, and in order that they might be 

 the more complete and effective, he established himself upon a few acres in 

 a retired place near Passaic, N. J., which he styled " The Pines," after a 

 small grove of stately trees located near his house. Here, with a sister and 

 brother-in-law, Mr. George C. Woolson, and their two children, very dear 

 to him, he spent the last years of his life. While he did not usually write 

 under his own name, he was well and favorably known as the author of the 

 " Notes from the Pines," in which he shared with the public the pleasure 

 he took in his extensive ornamental grounds and experimental gardens. 

 The careful use of his test grounds furnished the foundation facts for much 

 that he wrote, and accounts, in part, for the remarkable accuracy that char- 

 acterized all his contributions. For extent and accuracy, these papers are 

 conspicuous in horticulture for the botanical information that was contained 

 in them. A second series of papers was the " Doctor's Talks," which he 

 contributed for years without interruption. And with his rare faculty 

 of clear explanation, these columns for the boys and girls were models of 

 their kind and read with profit by old as well as young. Thousands of now 

 grown up men and women will long hold in grateful remembrance the 

 name of "The Doctor," over which title appeared from month to month 

 much solid science in the garb of clear, charming diction. He possessed 

 a remarkable fondness for children, seemed to fully appreciate their needs, 

 and loved to instruct them in a thousand useful ways. This is perhaps all 

 the more remarkable as he never married, and best of all, never grew old. 



Dr. Thurber revised and in part re-wrote Darlington's "Agricultural Bo- 

 tany, " which was subsequently published under the title of ' 'American Weeds 

 and Useful Plants," and still remains the standard work upon the subjects 

 treated therein. In his strictly botanical wcrk, much of which had a strong 

 practical bias. Dr. Thurber had a particular fondness for the grasses, and 

 he early conceived the design of preparing a book upon this great family of 



