1586 



HORTICULTURISTS 



HORTICULTURISTS 



1888. T. T. Lyon. 



His name appears in the list of correspondents in the 

 revised editions of Downing'.s "Fruits and Fruit Trees." 

 For some years, Mr. Lyon was president of a railway 

 company. In 1874, he moved to the "fruit-belt" of 



southwestern M i c h i- 

 gan, where he became 

 president of the Michi- 

 gan Lake Shore Nur- 

 sery Association, and 

 where he hved until 

 his death. The nur- 

 sery association was 

 not successful financi- 

 aUy. In 1SS8, Mr. Lyon 

 wrote a full (412 pages) 

 and careful "History 

 of Michigan Horticul- 

 ture," which was pub- 

 lished in the seven- 

 teenth report of the 

 State Horticultural So- 

 ciety, a society of which 

 he was president from 

 1876 to 1891, and hon- 

 orary president until 

 his death. In 1889, he 

 took charge of the 

 South Haven sub-sta^ 

 tion of the Michigan Experiment Station; and here, 

 with his fruits and trees, he hved quietly and happily 

 to the last. 



Mr. Lyon was one of the last of the older generation 

 of pomologists. Like his colleagues, he was an expert 

 on varieties. He was one of that sacred company which 

 placed accuracy and cautiousness before every con- 

 sideration of ambition or personal gain. His friends 

 knew that he had not the temper of a commercial man. 

 At one time it was said of him that he was the most 

 critical and accurate of American pomologists. The 

 fruit-lists of the Michigan Horticultural Society, his 

 labors in revision of nomenclature for the American 

 Pomological Society, and his various bulletins of the 

 Michigan Experiment Station, show his keen judgment 

 of varieties. L. H. B. 



Mcintosh, John, originator of the Mcintosh apple, 

 was a farmer, born in 1777, near what is now known 

 as the village of DundeJa, in Matilda Townsliip, Dun- 

 das County, Ontario, near the river St. Lawrence, and 

 died in 184.3. As a horticulturist he is noted only as the 

 originator of the Mcintosh apple. Little is known of 

 his life, but the facts in connection with the Mcintosh 

 apple are as follows: 



In 1796 he found growing in the clearing, a number 

 of seedling apple trees. He took them home and planted 

 fifteen or twenty of them in an orchard near his log 

 house. One of these was named the Mcintosh Red. 

 The original tree Lived until 1908. It was bearing apples 

 imtil 1907, but its death was hastened by a hailstorm 

 during that year. Ten years before it died it had been 

 badly injured by a fire burning an adjacent building. 

 The introduction of the Mcintosh apple is mainly due 

 to Allan Mcintosh, the son of John, who was born in 

 1815 and died in 1899. He, during his long life, propaga- 

 ted and disseminated many trees, beginning the propaga- 

 tion in 1835. In 1912 a monument was erected on the 

 old Mcintosh homestead to commemorate the tree 

 and its originator (see Vol. I, p. 317). 



W. T. Macotjn. 



M'Mahon, Bernard (about 1775 to September 16, 

 181G), horticulturist, was born in Ireland and came to 

 America, for political reasons, in 1796. He settled in 

 Philadelphia, where he engaged in the seed and nursery 

 business. He early began the collection and exportation 

 of .seeds of American plants. In 1804 he published a 

 catalogue of such seeds, comprising about 1,000 species. 



He was the means of making many of our native plants 

 known in Europe. He enjoyed the friendship of Jeffer- 

 son and other distinguished men, and his seed store 

 became a meeting-place of botanists and horticulturists 

 He was interested in all branches of horticulture. It is 

 thought that the Lewis & Clark expedition was planned 

 at his house. At all events, M'Mahon and Landreth 

 were instrumental in distributing the seeds which those 

 explorers collected. In 1806, he gave to America its 

 first great horticultural book, "American Gardener's 

 Calendar" which was long a standard cyclopedic work. 

 The editor of the eleventh edition of this book (1857) 

 makes the following reminiscence of M'Mahon: 



"Bernard M'Mahon was no common man. He sought 

 the American shores from political motives, as is 

 understood, but what these were has not been deter- 

 mined; most probably it was necessary to fly from the 

 persecution of government. He found American gar- 

 dening in its infancy, and immediately set himself 

 vigorously to work to introduce a love of flowers and 

 fruit. The writer well remembers his store, his garden 

 and greenhouses. The latter were situated near the 

 Germantown turnpike, between Philadelphia and 

 Nicetown, whence emanated the rarer flowers and 

 novelties, such as could be collected in the early part of 

 the present century, and where were performed, to the 

 astonishment of the amateurs of that day, successful 

 feats of horticulture that were but too rarely imitated. 

 His store was on Second Street, below Market, on 

 the east side. Many must still be alive who recollect 

 its bulk window, ornamented with tulip-glasses, a 

 large pumpkin, and a basket or two of bulbous roots; 

 behind the coimter officiated Mrs. M'Mahon, with 

 some considerable Irish accent, but a most amiable and 

 excellent disposition, and withal, an able saleswoman. 

 Mr. M'Mahon was also much in the store, putting up 

 seeds for transmission to all parts of this country and 

 Eiu"ope, writing his book, or attending to his corres- 

 pondence, and in one corner was a shelf containing a 

 few botanical or gardening books, for which there was 

 then a very small demand; another contained the few 

 garden implements, such as knives and trimming scis- 

 sors; a barrel of peas and a bag of seedhng potatoes, an 

 onion receptacle, a few chairs, and the room partly 

 hned with drawers containing seeds, constituted the 

 apparent stock in trade of what was one of the greatest 

 seed-stores then kno\^■Tl in the Union, and where was 

 transacted a considerable business for that day. Such a 

 store would naturally attract the botanist as well as 

 the gardener, and it was the frequent lounge of both 

 classes, who ever found in the proprietors ready 

 hsteners, as well as conversers; in the latter parti- 

 cular they were rather remarkable, and here you 

 would see Nuttall, Baldwin, Darlington, and other 

 scientific men, who sought information or were ready 

 to impart it." 



M'Mahon's name was given to west-coast evergreen 

 barberries by Nuttall in 1818, and these shrubs are 

 still known as Mahonias. See pp. 1511, 1518, 1521. 



L. H. B. 



Manning, Jacob Warren, nurseryman, was born at 

 Bedford, New Hampshire, February 20, 1826 and died 

 at Reading, Massachusetts, September 16, 1904. Until 

 the age of twenty-one, he remained on his father's 

 farm. At that time he went to Chelmsford, where he 

 was engaged in farm, fruit and nursery work. In 1849, 

 he became superintendent of the Winnesemitt Nursery 

 at Chelsea, of which the proprietor was S. W. Cole. He 

 remained here less than a year and until June, 1854, he 

 was employed as a gardener in Dorchester, Massachu- 

 setts, Burlington, and Brattleboro, Vermont. At that 

 time, he moved to Reading, where he established a 

 nursery in his own name. He introduced many large 

 and small fruits and ornamental trees and shrubs, 

 prominent among which are the Rocky Mountain blue 

 spruce (Picea pungens), the Cutter seedhng strawberry, 



