1590 



HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



of standard books of travel and he did a large amount of 

 technical writing, most of which is scattered in the files 

 of park commissions and other public and semi-public 

 boards, and in periodicals, encyclopedias, and reports 

 to owners of private estates. While he was familiar 

 with the architectural and engineering, arboricultural 

 and horticultural branches of his profession, and often 

 designed the minutest details, yet in general, it was his 

 practice himself to evolve the general designs for works 

 of landscape architecture and to direct partners, 

 assistants, superintendents, engineers and gardeners, 

 working intimately and sympathetically with him, in 

 the elaboration of general plans, working drawings, 

 specifications and in superintendence. In this way he 

 was associated in design with scores of architects, 

 engineers, landscape gardeners and other technical 

 men so intimately that in many cases it would be 

 impossible to distinguish where the work of his assist- 

 ants began and his ended. In the execution of his ideas 

 in landscape planting, for example, he was assisted in 

 the work on Central Park by Ignaz A. Pilat, and during 

 the second period of his employment by W. L. Fischer, 

 who also worked under his direction on the Boston 

 parks; on the Brooklyn parks by O. C. Bullard; on the 

 Buffalo parks by William McMillan; on the United 

 States Capitol grounds by William Cogan, and on many 

 other parks, grounds of institutions and of private 

 individuals by Warren H. Manning, and so on. Mr. 

 Olmsted took the greatest interest in and secured the 

 adoption of what may be called the naturalistic style of 

 planting, confining the use of the architectural style of 

 planting almost invariably to gardens in close connection 

 with important public or semi-public buildings or pri- 

 vate residences. He may fairly be said to have been 

 the originator in this country of the extensive use of 

 shrubbery borders and masses as a main feature of land- 

 scape planting instead of planting individual shrubs as 

 mere decoration. His influence throughout the whole 

 country has been very great, as shown by the adoption 

 by a host of imitators of the irregular, informal, pic- 

 turesque or naturalistic landscape style, with the prev- 

 alence of curvilinear roads, walks, and the like. Some 

 of these imitators often applied this style where it was 

 distinctly inappropriate and where the formal or 

 architectural style should have prevailed, as in the 

 grounds of several universities and other semi-public 

 institutions having usually large buildings. For por- 

 trait and further details, see "Cyclopedia of American 

 Agriculture," Vol. IV, p. 601. J OHN C. OLMSTED. . 



Parsons, Samuel B., nurseryman, landscape gardener 

 and author, was born in New York City, February 14, 

 1819, and died at Flushing, New York, on January 

 4, 1906. In 1899, he established a nursery with his 

 brother Robert at Flushing, giving special attention to 

 the introduction and propagation of ornamental trees 

 and shrubs. They were the first nursery firm to intro- 

 duce the Japanese maples and also to propagate rhodo- 

 dendrons in the United States. Mr. Parsons was an 

 expert landscape gardener and the author of numerous 

 essays on this and related subjects. He was also the 

 author of a book on "The Rose, its History, Poetry, 

 Culture and Classification." He was a charter member 

 of the American Pomological Society and an honorary 

 member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 from 1856. For a fuller account and portrait, see 

 "Cyclopedia of American Agriculture," Vol. IV, p. 602. 



Pettit, Murray, fruit-grower, was born on March 13, 

 1843, at Saltfleet, Ontario, Canada, and died at 

 Winona on March 3, 1910. On reaching manhood, he 

 engaged in farming, in 1872 taking up fruit-growing as 

 a specialty. He first took up the growing of peaches,- 

 and later branched into the culture of apples, pears, 

 plums and grapes. He was particularly distinguished 

 as a grape specialist, and was one of the first to plant 

 Niagara grapes in Ontario. He carried on a number of 



experiments with grapes and other fruits and in 1894 

 was appointed director of the Experimental Station at 

 Winona, which office he held until his death. Mr. 

 Pettit was always among the first to take up new ideas, 

 and was the third man in Ontario to use the spray- 

 pump. He was very active in all the local fruit-growers' 

 societies and a member of the Ontario Fruit-Growers' 

 Association, having at one time served that body as 

 president for a period of two years. 



Prescott, Charles Rammage (Fig. 1892), pomologist, 

 was born of Loyalist parents in Lunenburg County, 

 Nova Scotia, the latter part of the eighteenth century. 

 He was a successful merchant for many years in Hali- 

 fax, but in 1812 closed his business and moved to the 

 Annapolis Valley near Wolfville, Kings County, where 

 he bought a farm and developed a fine estate. The old 

 house still stands in good repair, though the gardens, 



orchards and vine- 

 yards, once the 

 pride of the prov- 

 ince, have largely 

 disappeared . The 

 work for which he 

 is especially remem- 

 bered is the intro- 

 duction and dissem- 

 ination of choice 

 varieties of fruits. 

 He is credited, 

 among apples, with 

 the introduction of 

 Ribston, Blenheim, 

 Gravenstein, Bald- 

 win, Rhode Island 

 Greening and 

 Northern Spy, six 

 out of the ten lead- 

 ing commercial va- 

 rieties of the prov- 

 ince today. The 

 list of his intro- 

 ductions among other fruits is almost equally impor- 

 tant. He was very generous with cions from his trees, 

 and many of the earlier orchards of the province can 

 be traced directly to his influence. He died in the 

 autumn of 1859. F> C SEARS 



Prince, William, the second proprietor of the Prince 

 Nursery at Flushing, Long Island, was born about 

 1725 and died in 1802. The nursery, which was per- 

 haps the first large commercial one in America, was 

 established about 1730 by his father, Robert Prince.* 

 The Huguenots who settled at New Rochelle and on 

 the north shore of Long Island brought with them a 

 variety of French fruits, and the interest thus created 

 in horticulture resulted in the establishment of his first 

 nursery. For a number of years attention was confined 

 chiefly to the fruit trees with which to stock the new 

 country, and it was only when more settled conditions 

 came that the culture of ornamental trees and shrubs 

 was introduced. Under William Prince, the nursery 

 grew rapidly in importance until the Revolution. 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 had 

 paid more attention to the science of war than to the 

 pursuits of horticulture; and a catalogue of 1794 contains 

 as many varieties of fruit as those of some nurseries of 

 the present, apricots and nectarines, for example, 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 conducted. Two plums, 

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



*The founding of the establishment is usually attributed to 

 William Prince, rather than to his father Robert. Page 1517. 



1892. Chas. R. Prescott. 



