HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



767 



merit: "The Linnsean Garden was commenced about the 

 middle of the last century by WiMiam Prince, the father 

 of the present proprietor, at a time when there were 

 few or no establishments of the kind in this country. 

 It originated from his rearing a few trees to ornament 

 his own grounds ; but finding, after the first efforts had 

 been attended with success, that he could devote a por- 

 tion of his lands more lucratively to their cultivation 

 for sale than to other purposes, he commenced their cul- 

 ture more extensively, and shortly after published a 

 catalogue, which, at that early period, contained several 

 hundred species and varieties, and hence arose 

 the first extensive fruit collection in America." 

 The elder Prince died in 1802, "at an advanced 

 age." 



Amongst the nurseries which were prominent 

 from 1820 to 1830 were Bloodgood's, Wilson's, 

 Parmentier's, and Hogg's, near New York ; Buel 

 and Wilson's, at Albany; Sinclair and Moore's, 

 at Baltimore. David Thomas, a man of great 

 character, and possessed of scientific attainments, 

 was the earliest horticulturist of central or west- 

 ern New York. His collection of fruits at Aurora, 

 upon Cayuga Lake, was begun about 1830. His 

 son, John J. Thomas, nurseryman and author of 

 the "American Fruit Culturist," which first ap- 

 peared in 1846, died at a ripe old age in 1895, 

 and in his removal the country lost one of its 

 most expert, systematic and conscientious pomol- 

 ogists. The nursery firm of Parsons & Co., on 

 Long Island, was founded in 1838, and is con- 

 tinuing. It was instrumental in distributing 

 great quantities of fruit and ornamental stock at 

 a formative time in American Horticulture, and 

 it was a pioneer in several commercial methods 

 of propagation of the more difficult ornamental 

 stock. It was the chief distributor of Japanese 

 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 



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 office was first established, the mail passing 



1090. One of the earliest American greenhouses. 1764. 



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

 : 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- 



49 



1091. Greenhouse front. 



With glass lights and door of glass at the end, to be 7 feet high, 

 35 in length by 12 in breadth. Brick foundation 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 1775, 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. This passed 

 to his nephew, Peter Faneuil, who built Faneuil Hall. 

 The greenhouse which is commonly considered to be the 

 first one built in the country was erected in 1764 in New 

 York, for James Beekman. A picture of this, 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 Figs. 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 in Fig. 1093; also in the pictures 

 in the articles on Greenhouse. 



These early houses were heated by flues or ferment- 

 ing substances. The use of steam in closed circuits 

 began in England about 1820. Hot-water circulation 

 seems to have been a later invention, although it drove 

 out steam heating, until the latter began to regain its 

 supremacy in this country twenty or twenty-five years 

 ago. The "New England Farmer" for June 1, 1831, con- 

 tains a description of hot-water heating for hothouses, a 

 matter which was then considered to be a great novelty. 



Most of the early houses had very little, if 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 



