THE BOTANISTS OF PHILADELPHIA. 349 



his love for the trees and wild flowers amounted almost to 

 a passion. His pleasure was never selfish, and years of 

 hard labor were devoted by him to the propagation of rare 

 species of plants in diff'erent parts of the Park. He loved 

 the work for its own sake, his reward being the success of 

 his efforts. He was often misunderstood, his work thwarted 

 and undone, but he laughed merrily over his difficulties, 

 and, with apparently unlimited patience and good nature, 

 did the work over again. Plants that were rare in the 

 Park, he introduced, bringing seeds, roots or young plants 

 from other localities. He brought plants from the seaside ; 

 he introduced Coreopsis senifoUa which comes from the 

 South, and he planted in several places the winter aconite, 

 Eranthis hyemalis. 



But his greatest work was in the planting of trees. 

 One fall he gathered at Bartram's Garden 300 acorns of 

 the mossy -cup oak {Quercus macrocarpa), which he dis- 

 tributed all over the Park. Young trees were culled out 

 from places where they could not thrive and were trans- 

 planted to favorable sites, and the growing trees were ten- 

 derly watched and cared for as though they were in a 

 private garden. During the last six years of his life Mr. 

 McCalla devoted his energies almost exclusively to the top 

 of " Tunnel Rock " in the East Park. His first work w^as 

 the planting of trees, but his plan expanded as he saw the 

 success of his labors ; flower beds were laid out and culti- 

 vated, noxious weeds were rooted out, so that gradually the 

 place assumed the aspect of a garden, from having been 

 the most barren spot in the Park. The labor involved was 

 enormous, for soil and water, as well as fertilizer, had to be 

 carried to the top of the hill, and Mr. McCalla had no 



