HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



1563 



HORTICULTURISTS, NORTH AMERICAN. At 

 this place are brought together brief biographical state- 

 ments on persons not now living who have been emi- 

 nent in horticulture in any of its branches in the United 

 States and Canada. It is intended to include those who, 

 by their own efforts, have had marked influence of a 

 national scope, or at least an influence extending 

 beyond state or provincial boundaries, in developing 

 horticultural thought and practice as cultivators, 

 tradesmen, authors, teachers, experimenters. As there 

 is no standard list of such persons, or no recog- 

 nized basis of judgment, so the present account is 

 undoubtedly incomplete, and it maj- lack in uniformity. 

 No doubt many other names should have been included; 

 but the present list represents a large correspondence 

 extending over nearly three years, and it is as extensive 

 as circumstances will permit. It is particularly to be 

 understood that this set of biographies does not attempt 

 to constitute any standard by which the merits of individ- 

 ual horticulturists are to be judged. It does not repre- 

 sent an editorial judgment of persons who should 

 finally be included in such lists, but only a collection of 

 data of interest and value so far as it goes. There is 

 need of a standard biographical work on American men 

 and women who have been eminent and prominent in 

 the development of agriculture in its widest sense; it 

 is hoped that these biographies, and those contained in 

 the fourth volume of the "Cyclopedia of American Agri- 

 culture," will be of service to editors who come finally 

 to prepare such a work. 



Adlum, John (Fig. 1868), grape experimenter, and 

 author of "Memoiron the Cultivation of the Vine," 1823 

 and 1828, the first separately published American grape 

 book, was born in York, Pa., April 29, 1759, and died at 

 Georgetown, D. C, March 1, 1836. He was a soldier 

 in the Revolution, major in the provisional army in the 

 administration of the elder Adams, and later a brigadier- 

 general in the mih- 

 tia of Pennsylvania. 

 He was also a sur- 

 veyor and civil 

 engineer. He also 

 held an associate 

 judgeship in Ly- 

 coming County, 

 Pennsylvania, hav- 

 ing been appointed 

 by Governor Mif- 

 flin. He was a friend 

 of Priestly, and en- 

 deavored to apply 

 the scientific knowl- 

 edge of his time to 

 agriculture. He 

 early became inter- 

 ested in the ame- 

 lioration of the 

 native grapes, and 

 estabhshed an ex- 

 perimental vine- 

 yard in the District 

 of Columbia. He endeavored, but without success, to 

 secure the use of certain public land in Washington for 

 the purpose of "cultivating an experimental farm." He 

 brought the Catawba grape to public notice. He was a 

 pioneer in the awakening industrial activity of the new 

 country. The botanist, Rafinesque, commemorated 

 his name in the pretty genus Adlumia; but otherwise 

 he has remained practically unknown until very 

 recently. For further information, see Bailey, "Evolu- 

 tion of our Native Fruits." L. H. B. 



Allen, Charles Linnsus, seedsman, florist and author, 

 was born in Union Springs, New York, in 1828 and died 

 at Floral Park, Long Island, May 21, 1909. He early 

 evinced a love for flowers, esi)ecially the tree peony and 



1868. John Adlum. 



gladioli when they were considered novelties in this 

 country, and he soon made a horticultural and business 

 specialty of these. At this time he lived in Brooklyn, 

 New York, and was a communicant of Plymouth 

 Church. He was superintendent of the Sunday-school 

 for a number of years when Henry Ward Beecher was 

 pastor of the church. Mr. Allen's pleasing ways and 

 love for the children made him well fitted for the work. 

 He was genial by nature, a pleasing conversationalist 

 and a clever WTiter, an entertaining speaker, and devout 

 churchman. In the early seventies he engaged in the 

 wholesale seed trade at Queens, Long Island, under the 

 firm name of C. L. Allen & Co., and erected an exten- 

 sive plant for that day and time. The industry did 

 not flourish as he had expected, and the seed business 

 was sold to Hallock & Thorpe, a firm well known to 

 the trade for many years. IVIr. Allen then removed to 

 Garden City, Long Island, and engaged to grow flower 

 and vegetable seed by contract for many of the seeds- 

 men, and it is here that he gained an international 

 reputation as a scientific specialist on the culture of 

 cabbage and cauhflower. His fame as a seedsman 

 became worldwide. He wrote several books on horti- 

 cultural subjects that were pleasing and practical and 

 therefore popular. He spent his last years at Floral 

 Park, New York, and was in great demand as a public 

 speaker for horticultural organizations. 



Mr. Allen possessed one of the finest private horti- 

 cultural libraries in this country, many of the volumes 

 of European origin and of rare merit, some tracing 

 back to Holland and to 1497. Mr. Allen was a scholar 

 and a linguist, and enjoyed the wealth of horticultural 

 literature to the fullest extent. He was widely appre- 

 ciated for his wisdom, geniaUty and his comradeship. 



G. B. Brackett. 



Ames, Frederick Lothrop, of the fourth generation of 

 a family distinguished in the history of Massachusetts 

 enterprise, was born in North Easton, in that state, 

 June 8, 183.5, and died September 13, 1893. He was 

 graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1854, 

 and devoted his hfe to the management of great com- 

 mercial and industrial interests. Business did not 

 occupy all his attention; he was a Fellow of Harvard 

 College, a trustee of the Massachusetts Society for 

 Promoting Agriculture, and of the Museum of Fine 

 Arts; and an active and faithful director of charitable 

 and benevolent institutions. A munificent patron of 

 arts and sciences, he was successful in stimulating the 

 increase of knowledge in many fields of human research. 

 Devoted through his whole hfe to horticulture, he 

 gained distinction for his wide and accurate knowledge 

 of tropical orchids and their cultivation, and his col- 

 lection of these plants at his country place in his native 

 town was the most complete in the New \\'orld. His 

 important services to botany and horticulture are com- 

 memorated in Lsclia Amesiana, Lxlia anceps var. 

 Amesiana, Phalstnopsis F. L. Ames, Cypripediiim 

 Amesianum, Cypripedium insigne var. Amesianum, 

 Vanda Amesiana, Stanhopea Amesiana, Miltonia 

 vexillaria var. Amesiana, Odonloglossum Rossise var. 

 Atnesiana, and Cattleya Hardyana var. Amesiana. 



C. S. Sargent. 



Appleseed, Johmiy, an interesting and eccentric 

 character, who sowed apple seeds in the wilds of Ohio 

 and Indiana between 1801 and 1847. His real name 

 was Jonathan Chapman. He was born in Boston in 

 1775, and died in 1847. For forty-six years he walked 

 barefoot through the wilderness, and w;js never harmed 

 by snakes, wild animals, or Indians. He was often clad 

 in a coffee-sack, in which he made holes for the arms and 

 legs. He would nev<'r kill any creature, and considered 

 jjruning and grafting wicked. Swodenborg and the 

 New Testament he read aloud in many frontier log 

 cabins. He had many peculiarities, but w.as always 

 welcomed and respected everywhere. In the war of 



