Necrology of i8go. 



299 



BENJAMIN S. WILLIAMS. 



Benjamin Samuel Williams died June 23, aged 68 years. 

 He was born at Hoddesdon, England, and at the age of 14 

 entered the celebrated garden of John Warner, where his 

 father was long employed as a gardener. At the age of 20 he 

 entered the lists as an exhibitor, and soon acquired fame as a 

 cultivator and exhibitor of the pansy. He next took up the 

 ranunculus, and very soon launched out into floriculture of a 

 comprehensive kind, accomplishing wonders with the aid of 

 a few frames to enable him to grow flowers for exhibition in 

 March and April. His ambition growing with his talent, he 

 soon became an exhibitor of vegetables and fruits in the neigh- 

 boring towas. 



He soon felt the scarcity of books, and resolved that he 



