1436 



PRINCE 



of March 



an advertisement in the New York " Mercury" 

 14, mi, which reads as follows: 



"William Prince, at his nursery, Flushing Landing, 

 oflPers for sale— 



110 large Carolina Magnolia flower trees, the most 

 beautiful trees that grow in America, four feet high. 



50 large Catalpa flower trees; they are nine feet high 

 to the under part of the top and thick as one's leg. 



30 or 40 Almond trees that begin to bear. 



2,500 white, red and black Currant bushes. 



50 Fig trees. 



Lisbon and Madeira Grape vines. 



5,000 Hautboy, Chili, large English and American 

 Strawberry plants. 



1,500 white and 1,000 black Mulberry trees. 



Also Barcelona Filbert trees." 



The establishment had attained such public im- 

 portance that when the British took possession of 

 Flushing, August 29, 1776, after their victory at the 

 battle of Long Island, the commanding officer. General 

 Howe, placed a guard over the nursery to protect it 

 from depredations, and this was continued until all 

 danger was past. The extent of the business, as well as 

 the paralyzing effect of the war, is shown from an 

 advertisement of Mr. Prince, shortly after the British 

 occupation, offering 30,000 young cherry trees for sale 

 as hoop-poles, the only use to which they could be put 

 during the Revolution. The loss of domestic business 

 was largely compensated by the great demand for 

 American native trees and shrubs wanted by the officers 

 of the British army to be sent to friends in England 

 and Germany. 



A return of peace brought with it increased trade, to 

 make good the depredations of the soldiery as well as 

 to re-stock the orchards of those who for seven years 

 past had paid more attention to the science of war than 

 to the pursuits of horticulture; and a catalogue of 1794, 

 still preserved, contains fully as many varieties of fruit 

 as those of some nurseries of the year 1900, over a cen- 

 tury later; apricots and nectarines, for instance, each 

 being represented by ten varieties. 



Not only was everything of merit imported, but the 

 origination of new varieties by a careful selection of 

 seedlings was enthusiastically carried on. Two plums, 

 still well known, date from this period, Prince's Yellow 

 Gage being originated in 1783 and the Imperial Gage in 

 1794. The "Treatise on Horticulture" mentions that in 

 1790 no less than twenty-five quarts of green gage pits 

 were planted, from which seedlings were obtained of 

 every color and shape, it being probable that the Wash- 

 ington plum was originated in that year. Before the 

 death of this William Prince, the nursery business had 

 been taken up by his sons, William and Benjamin; the 

 former on new ground, called the Linnean Botanic 

 Garden and Nursery, and the latter at the original 

 place, called "The Old American Nursery." 



William Prince, third proprietor of the Prince Nur- 

 series at Flushing, was born Nov. 10, 1766 ; married 

 Mary Stratton, Dec. 24, 1794, and died April 9, 1842. 

 During his lifetime the Prince Nursery was one of the 

 centers of horticultural and botanic interest in America, 

 and reached the height of its fame. He continued the 

 work of his father in the introduction of all foreign trees 

 and plants of value, the discovery of unknown American 

 species and the creation of new varieties from seed. 

 One of the trees introduced to great popularity in the 

 younger days of William Prince the second was the 

 Lombardy poplar, of which he advertised in 1798 no 

 less than 10,000 trees 10-17 ft. in height. For several 

 years the Lombardy poplar was the fashionable shade 

 tree. Long avenues of them were planted by the 

 wealthy; and their leaves were considered valuable for 

 fodder. In 1806 the tide turned, owing to a belief that 

 they harbored a poisonous worm, and thousands were 

 cut down and burned. 



In 1793 William Prince bought from Bayard, LeRoy 

 and Clarkson, the property on the north side of Bridge 

 street in Flushing, across from the old nursery, con- 

 taining eighty acres, and it was soon transformed into 

 a place of arboreal beauty. For fully fifty years the 

 nursery was carried on much less for profit than from 

 a love of horticulture and botany. It was designed to 



PRINCE 



contain every known kind of tree, shrub, vine and plant 

 known to England or America that possessed any hor- 

 ticultural merit. In Europe probably the only one of 

 the same character was that of the London Horticul- 

 tural Society. When the great Northwest was explored 

 by Lewis and Clark, many of the botanical treasures 

 found a home at the Flushing Nurseries. Among them 



the Mahonia became very popular, the earlier specimens 

 being sold at $20 each. 



The catalogues from 1815 to 1850 ranked among the 

 standard horticultiiral publications of the country. The 

 number of varieties of fruits cultivated seems scarcely 

 credible in these days, when many nurseries are con- 

 ducted solely for profit, and only the trees or plants 

 which find a ready sale are propagated. The collection 

 of roses at one time embraced over 800 kinds; of dah- 

 lias over 350 varieties; the collections of camellias, of 

 citrous fruits and of grapes were enormous, while the 

 marvelous variety of the ordinary fruits can be seen 

 from the "Pomological Manual." The "Treatise on Hor- 

 ticulture" mentions that at that time (1828) the nursery 

 contained more than 20,000 plums, of 140 varieties, 

 while the apricots numbei'ed 35 and the grapes about 

 240 varieties. The catalogue of 1845, which enumerates 

 only the best varieties, contains 350 kinds of apples, 

 300 of pears, 120 of cherries, 200 of plums and 160 of 

 peaches. 



In 1828 Mr. Prince wrote and published the "Treatise 

 on Horticulture," which was the first work of the kind 

 produced in America. Mr. Prince was a man of great 

 energy of purpose, of excellent judgment, with a love 

 for scientific studies, and possessed of a most amiable 

 character. By indefatigable effort he succeeded in hav- 

 ing roads and bridges built which shortened the dis- 

 tance to New York fully one-half, and soon after the in- 

 vention of steamboats he had a regular line of boats es- 

 tablished between Flushing and New York. He was a 

 zealous churchman, a vestryman of St. George's church. 

 Flushing, as early as 1798, and continued in the vestry 

 32 years, during 14 of which he was warden.' In the 

 words of Mandeville's History of Flushing, he was 

 "universally esteemed in life and regretted in death." 



