THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 193 



seemed hardly sufficient to complete. He was carrying 

 this work through the press at his own expense, when 

 he died. This formidable treatise edited by his wife, 

 Sarah S. Pickering, appeared in 1879 under the title 

 " Chronological History of Plants, or Man's Record of his 

 own Existence." * 



" Dr. Pickering was singularly retiring and reticent, very 

 dry in ordinary intercourse, but never cynical ; delicate and 

 keen in perception and judgment ; just, upright and exem- 

 plary in every relation ; and to those who knew him well, 

 communicative, sympathetic, and even genial. In the 

 voyage of circumnavigation he was the soul of industry 

 and a hardy explorer." 



ROBERT BUIST. 



Robert Buistf was born at Cupar Fyfe, near Edin- 

 burgh, Scotland, on November 14, 1805, and when quite 

 young w^ent to learn the business of a gardener under the late 

 James McNab, curator of the Edinburgh Botanic Garden. 

 To complete his knowledge, he went through a course at 

 Elvaston Castle, the seat of the Earl of Harrington, one of 

 the most famous gardening establishments in England. In 

 August, 1828, he arrived in America, and obtained employ- 

 ment in the nursery of David Landreth, which at that time 

 was one of the best known in America. The camellia 

 houses w^ere particularly famous, and Camellia Landrethii 

 remains to this day a worthy monument of the early efforts 

 of this firm to improve that plant. Buist later obtained a 



* " Chronological History of Plants, Man's Record of His Own Existence. 

 Illustrated through their Names. Uses, and Companionship." By Charles Pickering, 

 M. D. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1879. 4to., pp. xvi, 1222. 



t The Gardener's Monthly, XXII, p. 872 (1880). Portrait as frontispiece. 



