THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 249 



THOMAS MEEHAN. 



Thomas Meehaii was born March 26, 1826, at Potter's 

 Bar, near Barnet (Hertford, Middlesex), England, not far 

 from London. His father, Edward, was one of the most 

 skillful private gardeners of England. His mother, Sarah 

 Daneham, came of one of the oldest Saxon farming families. 

 The family was in the deepest poverty at the time of the 

 birth of Thomas, who was instructed by his mother until 

 he was twelve years of age, when he was put to work with 

 a gardener. He inherited his love for plants from his 

 father, and being deaf from birth, he never mingled with 

 other boys, but spent his time in the fields as an amateur 

 naturalist. Some of his early observations were remarkable, 

 and attracted the attention of well-known men, who 

 befriended him. His first article was published when he 

 was thirteen years years of age, and about the same time 

 he succeeded in hybridizing the Fuchsia, for the first time 

 producing a race which he named St. Clair. When fifteen 

 years of age he made and published his first scientific dis- 

 covery on the lines which afterward made him famous — 

 " Irritable Stamens in the Flowers of Portulaca grandiflora " 

 — then a new introduction from Mexico. He attracted the 

 attention, through his diligence in the pursuit of botany, of 

 such men as Dr. Broomfield, Dr. Thomas Belsatter, Pro- 

 fessor C. C. Babbington, and others. His spare time, while 

 watching by night the stoke-holes of the greenhouses, was 

 spent in study. At seventeen he became head-gardener to 

 a Mr. Vaux, and in 1845, leaving his position, he entered 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew, where he became acquainted 

 with Robinson Scott. He fell under suspicion as belong- 

 ing to the Chartists, and thus formed the ill-will of Sir 



