HORTICULTURISTS 



HOSACKIA 



1603 



her 28, 1819, and died in Athens, Georgia, July 14, 1867. 

 He was a graduate of Hamilton College, New York, a 

 teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, and upon removing to 

 Athens, he became one of the most prominent horti- 

 culturists of the South. He was a contributor to many 

 agricultural and horticultural periodicals, both North 

 and South, and before and during the time of the Civil 

 War, he was owner and editor of the "Southern Culti- 

 vator." He was also author of "Gardening for the 

 South," which book was published in 1856; after his 

 death two more editions were published, one in 1867, 

 and the last in 1901. His useful life was spent in the 

 upbuilding of southern horticulture -and agriculture. 

 For a more detailed account see "Cyclopedia of 

 American Agriculture," Vol. IV, p. 625. 



T. H. McHATTON. 



Wilder, Marshall Pinckney (Fig. 1907), distinguished 

 amateur pomologist and patron of horticulture, was 

 born at Rindge, New Hampshire, September 22, 1798, 

 and died at his home near Boston, December 16, 1886. 

 His inherited love of country Me soon showed itself, 

 and at the age of sixteen he chose farm work in prefer- 

 ence to a college course. At twenty-seven he moved to 

 Boston, where he was long known as a prosperous 

 merchant and president of many societies and institu- 

 tions. His active interest in horticulture may be dated 

 from 1832, when he 

 purchased a subur- 

 ban home at Dor- 

 chester, where he 

 lived for more than 

 half a century. His 

 pear orchard at one 

 time contained 

 2,500 trees, repre- 

 senting 800 varie- 

 ties. During his life 

 he tested 1,200 

 kinds of pears and 

 in 1873 he exhibited 

 404 varieties. He 

 produced several 

 new pears. In 1844 

 he introduced the 

 Anjou. He im- 

 ported many fruits 

 and flowers new to 

 America, and from 

 1833 to the end of- 

 his life he was con- 

 stantly contributing to the society exhibitions the prod- 

 ucts of his garden. He carried a camel's-hair brush in 

 his pocket and was always hybridizing plants. 



He delighted in floriculture, and his camellia collec- 

 tion, comprising at one time 300 varieties, was the best 

 in America. He raised many new kinds of camellias, 

 though he lost 500 seedlings by fire. His Camellia 

 Wilderi he sold to florists for $1,000. He also had a 

 notable collection of azaleas. As early as 1834 he pro- 

 duced a double California poppy. Among the many 

 floral novelties which he was first to import, cultivate 

 or exhibit in America were Diervilla rosea (1851), 

 hardy kinds of Azalea mollis (1874), Cissus discolor 

 (1854), "the harbinger of the infinite variety of orna- 

 mental-leaved plants now so generally cultivated and 

 admired," Clematis cserulea var. grandiflora (1841), 

 Lilium landfolium var. album, the first of Japanese 

 lilies, Gladiolus floribundus (1836). and Onddium 

 flexuosum (1837), a plant of which bore ninety-seven 

 fully expanded flowers and was the first orchid reported 

 at any American exhibition. The Marshall P. Wilder 

 rose makes his name familiar to a later generation. 



Wilder's greatest services to horticulture were con- 

 nected with the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 and the American Pomological Society. Of the former 

 he was a member for fifty-six years, and president from 



1907. Marshall P. Wilder. 



1841 to 1848. He was one of the founders of the Ameri- 

 can Pomological Society, and with the exception of a 

 single term was its president from its organization in 

 1850 until his death in 1886. He is counted one of the 

 founders of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture 

 and of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, and 

 of the United States Agricultural Society (1852). He 

 was president of the last from its foundation until 

 1857, and from 1868 until his death he was president 

 of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. At 

 twenty-six he was a colonel, and in 1858, after declin- 

 ing the nomination four times, he was elected com- 

 mander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com- 

 pany. He was a trustee of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology. 



In 1883 Marshall P. Wilder urged upon the American 

 Pomological Society the necessity of a reform in the 

 nomenclature of fruits. He took an active part in the 

 great work that followed. 



In the early days when the conflicting interests of 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the Mount 

 Auburn Cemetery required separation, he was an 

 important factor in solving the complicated and deli- 

 cate problem. The settlement of this difficulty laid the 

 foundations of the wealth of the Massachusetts Horti- 

 cultural Society. 



At his death he left the American Pomological Society 

 $1,000 for Wilder Medals for objects of special merit 

 and $4,000 for general purposes. He left the Massachu- 

 setts Horticultural Society $1,000, to encourage the 

 production of new American varieties of pears and 

 grapes. WILHELM MILLER. 



Woolverton, Charles Edward, pomologist, and 

 nurseryman, was born in Grimsby, Ontario, August 

 22, 1820. He was the youngest son of Dennis Wool- 

 verton, of New Jersey, who settled on a farm of 400 

 acres on the south side of Lake Ontario, in the Niagara 

 district in 1798. Here Charles became accustomed to 

 every department of work both in farm and orchard. 

 He was educated at Madison (now Colgate) University, 

 and in 1846 settled upon a portion of the old home- 

 stead. In 1856, in company with A. M. Smith, he 

 devoted a considerable portion of his farm to nursery 

 and orchard, in which business he was quite successful, 

 distributing fruits and fruit trees throughout a consid- 

 erable portion of Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. At 

 Grimsby, he planted the first large commercial orchard 

 of peach trees and proved the adaptability of the soil 

 and climate of the Niagara district for the production 

 of peaches and sweet cherries. In company with 

 Messrs. Beadle, Smith, Arnold, Judge Logic and 

 several others, Mr. Woolverton was instrumental in 

 the formation of the Fruit-Growers' Association of 

 Ontario, which afterward reached a membership of 

 over 5,000, and was the chief agent in the encourage- 

 ment and development of horticulture in southern 

 Ontario. He died in August, 1900. 



LINUS WOOLVERTON. 



HOSACKIA (David Hosack, professor of botany and 

 medicine in New York; author of "Hortus Elginensi," 

 1811; died 1835). Leguminosse. Herbaceous plants, 

 three of which have been advertised by collectors of 

 northwest American plants. 



The genus contains about 40^50 species> all American 

 and mostly confined to the Pacific slope : herbs or rarely 

 subshrubs: Ivs. pinnate, with 2 to many Ifts. : stipules 

 minute and gland-like, rarely scarious or leafy: fls. 

 yellow or reddish, in axillary umbels which are pedun- 

 cled or not. The genus is closely related to Lotus, with 

 which some authors unite it, but the calyx-teeth are 

 shorter than the tube: keel obtuse: Ivs. usually with 

 numerous Ifts., none of which is like stipules, while 

 Lotus has calyx-lobes usually longer than the tube, a 

 rostrate keel and 5 or 4 Ifts., of which 2 or 1 are stipule- 

 like. The two species first mentioned belong to a sec- 



