Till 



■kler Prii 



HORTICULTURE 



gean Garden was commenced about the 

 century \<y William Prince, the father 



rii;irirt.ir. ;it a time when there were 



-Inn. lit- i.f the kind in this country. 



1 \i\< r.-.irini; a few trees to ornament 

 l.in liniliiiL', after the first efforts had 



h .-.nr.-i-.-s. that he could devote a por- 



iively. and shoi-tly after published s 

 at that early period, contained several 

 jnd varieties, and hence arose 

 e fruit collection in America." 

 died in 1802, "at an advanced 



HORTICULTURE 



767 



ness and writing, had great influence on American 

 Horticulture in its formative period. As we have seen, 

 he distributed seeds of the Lewis and Clark expedition; 

 but Landreth is said to have shared these seeds, and 

 also those collected by Nuttall. Those were days of 

 the enthusiastic exportation of the seeds of American 

 plants. 



The development of the seed trade is coincident with 

 the development of the postal service. Burnet Landreth 

 writes that "it was not until 1775 that the New York 

 city post oiiace was first established, the mail passing 



Amons:st the nurseries which were prora 

 from 18;;0 to 1830 were Bloodgood's, \Vil.s..irs 

 Parmentier's, and Hogg's, near New York ; Ijm- 

 and Wilson's, at Albany; Sinclair and iMn(,r.-'s 

 at Baltimore. David Thomas, a man of -ri.:il 

 character, and possessed of scientific attainmrnt- 

 ■was the earliest horticulturist of central "i- \\i -i 

 ern New York. His collection of fruits at Auiiu:! 

 upon Cayuga Lake, was begun about Lsiii'. Hi- 

 son, .John J. Thomas, nurseryman and author ol 

 the "American Fruit Culturist," which first ap 

 peared in 1840, died at a ripe old age in 1895, 



ogists. The nursery ttnn .-f r ,'. ' ' i 



Long Island, was fnund'd in 1- ■. ii 



great quantities of fruit and ..iii.i nii.i ~i 



a formative time in American llnrtii nli ni 

 it was a pioneer in several comunn'rial ui 

 of propagation of the more ditlicnilt <ninn 

 stock. It w.as the chief distributor nf .1m| 

 plants in the early days. Between 1840 and 1850 

 arose the beginnings of that marvelous network of nur- 

 series, which, under the lead of Ellwanger & Barry, 

 T. C. Maxwell & Brothers,W. & T. Smith, and others, has 

 spread the name of western New York throughout North 

 America. In 1857, Prosper J. Berckmans, who had then 

 been a resident of the United States seven years, re- 

 moved to Georgia, and laid the foundation of what is 

 now the best known nursery in the South. 



The first American seed house, David Landreth's, in 

 Philadelphia, was established in 1784. The second was 

 John Mackejohn's, 1792; third, William Leeson, 1794; 

 fourth. Bernard M'Mahon, 1800, all of Philadelphia. In 

 1802, Grant Thorburn's was established in New York. 

 The first and last of these businesses still exist under 

 the family names. M'Mahon did a large business in ex- 

 porting seeds of native plants, and it was through his 

 work that many American plants came into cultivation 

 in Europe. His catalogue of seeds of American plants 

 in 1804, for the export trade, contained about 1,000 spe- 

 cies of trees, herbs and shrubs. He also announced at 



1090 One 



1764 



that time that he had "also for sale an extensive variety 

 of Asiatic, South Sea Islands, African and European 

 seeds of the most curious and rare kinds." "The prices 

 shall be moderate, and due allowance will be made to 

 those who buy to sell again." M'Mahon, through busi- 



length by 12 in breadth. Brick foiindafion 2 feet high, half a foot 

 of which to be underground. — Robert Squibb, Gardener's Calendar, 

 Charleston, S. C. 1827. 



once every two weeks between New York and Boston. 

 In 17/5, a through mail was established by Postmaster 

 Franklin between Boston and Savannah, the letters be- 

 ing carried by post riders, each man covering 25 miles. 

 Previous to that date, sixty days would frequently pass 

 without a mail from Virginia." Landreth estimates that 

 there are now nearly two hundred seed firms in the 

 United States publishing and distributing descriptive 

 seed catalogues. 



Greenhouses. — The first glasshouse in North America 

 was probably that erected early in last century in Bos- 

 ton, by Andrew Faneuil, who died in 1737. Tliis passed 

 to his nephew, Peter Faneuil, whn built Katn-iiil Hall. 

 The greenhouse which is commonly .-.nisid.r.Ml to be the 

 first one built in the country was fr»<-tn<l in 1 iiit in New 

 York, for James Beekman. A pi. -tun- of tliis, from 

 Taft's" Greenhouse Construction," is shown in Fig. 1090. 

 Glasshouses were fully described in 1804 by Gardiner 

 and Hepburn, and in 1806 by M'Mahon, but these authors 

 do not state to what extent such structures existed in 

 America. In Doctor Hosack's botanic garden, 1801, ex- 

 tensive glasshouses were erected. Compare Pigs. 986, 

 987 Fig. 1091 shows one of the earliest American pic- 

 tures of a greenhouse. It is copied, full size, from 

 Squibb's "Gardener's Calendar," Charleston, S. C, 1827. 

 Fig 1092 shows the first greenhouse in Chicago, as illus- 

 trated in "American Florist." Note the small panes, and 

 the sash construction. This was built in 1835 or 1836. 



^ With these pictures should be compared the modern 

 greenhouses as shown m Big 1093, also m the pictures 

 m the articles on Ciuen/iOKie 

 These early houses were heated by flues or ferment 



,•,4 mg substinces lln um (f ^.ti mi in di s< il cirtuits 



if began m En^l in I i n I n il i i i n nl ition 

 ' seems to have I I I rove 



-^ out steam he itn in its 



supremacy m fin i n i i i i i i \eirs 



ago The 'New Ln„l ui 1 1 iiin i 1 i liu 1 1^ 1 ton 

 tams a description of hot watei heating toi h jthouses a 

 matter which was then considered to be a gieat novelty 

 Most of the early houses had very little, it any, glass 

 in the roof, and the sides were high. It was once a 

 fashion to build living rooms over the house, so that the 

 roof would not freeze. In the "modern " construction of 

 the greenhouse of M'Mahon's day, 1806, he advised 



