DECEASE OF THOMAS EIVEKS. 9 



BUSINESS MEEXma. 



Sathbdat, December 1, 1877. 



An adjourned meeting of the Society was holden at 11 o'clock, 

 President Pakkman in the chaii'. 



The President announced as the first business before the meeting, 

 resolutions in memory of Thomas Rivers, one of the most eminent 

 European horticulturists and pomologists, which would be appro- 

 priately presented by Marshall P. Wilder, the foremost American 

 pomologist. 



Mr. Wilder thanked the President for suspending the usual order 

 of business that we might render proper honor to the memory of 

 one of the oldest and most respected corresponding members of the 

 Society. He was advised by the memorial card which he held in 

 his hand, that Thomas Rivers died at his residence, Sawbridge- 

 worth, England, on the 17th of October, 1877, aged seventy-nine 

 years. It had been his privilege for nearl}^ fifty years to be 

 acquainted by correspondence or personally, with Mr. Rivers, who 

 was one of the most eminent horticulturists of the age. As a 

 nurseryman, pomologist, tree and rose grower, and especially as a 

 hybridizer, producing and disseminating new and choice varieties 

 of fruits and flowers the name of Mr. Rivers would long be remem- 

 bered with veneration and gratitude. For nearly sixty years he 

 was actively engaged in the nursery business, and it can be said 

 with truth, that no man in aU Europe ever maintained a higher 

 character for fidehty and integrity. As a pomologist he would be 

 remembered for generations to come, especially for the production 

 of new and valuable fruits from seed, which exercised a fascination 

 over him ; as he said ' ' growing with his growth and strengthening 

 with his decline." As a raiser and introducer of new fruits, the 

 editor of the London "Gardener's Chronicle," (than which there 

 can be no higher authority), said of him, " the name of Thomas 

 Rivers stands pre-eminent. We have had no English pomologist to 

 compare with him in this department, if we except Thomas Andrew 

 Knight." The same paper gave a list of more than seventy new 

 varieties of fruits raised and sent out by him. Mr. Rivers con- 

 sidered as one of his greatest triumphs, the production of early 

 peaches, by which the season is extended for several weeks, and 

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