THINNING FRUIT 



THORBURN 



1797 



the fruit. Sometimes small shears are employed, but 

 as a rule the fingers and thumbs of an active man are 

 the most effective instruments available. Practice 

 gives deftness. Eight to ten mature peach trees 

 constitute a day's work. As to time, while it is im- 

 portant to thin early in the season, experience has 

 shown that much labor is saved if the work is deferred 

 until the "June drop" or first drop after the setting of 

 the fruit occurs. After this, thinning should be done 

 promptly. J OHN CRAIG. 



THISTLE. Blessed T. See Carbenia. Cotton T. See 

 Onopordon. Globe T. See Echinops. Golden T. See 

 Scolymus. Scotch T. See Onopordon. 



THLADlANTHA (Greek, to crush and flower; the 

 author of the geuus is said to have named it from 

 pressed specimens). Cucurbit Acece. A genus of 4 spe- 

 cies of tender, dioacious, herbaceous vines with tuberous 

 roots, usually ovate-cordate leaves and axillary, yellow 

 flowers. The genus is native of southern and eastern 

 Asia and the island of Java. Male tts. solitary or ra- 

 cemed; calyx-tube short, bell-shaped, the bottom shut 

 by a horizontal scale; segments 5, lanceolate; corolla 

 toll-shaped, 5-lobed, the lobes revolute half way down; 

 stamens 5: female fl. with calyx and corolla of male; 

 ovary oblong; style 3-cut: seeds many. Thladiantha 

 has recently been offered in this country under the 

 name of Golden Creeper. 



dubia, Bunge. A tall climber with light green foliage 

 and numerous yellow bell-shaped flowers : male fls. soli- 

 tary in the axils without bracts: fr. ovoid-oblong, about 

 2 in. long, red : seeds black, smooth. Summer. N. China. 

 G.C. III. 28:279. B.M. 5469 (male fl. only). -According 

 to R. I. Lynch, in Gn. 56, p. 518, the plants are of easy 

 cultivation and by planting both sexes and artificial 

 pollination the fruit may be grown. He further states 

 that the root-tubers are without buds but form buds 

 just before growth commences, as does a root-cutting. 

 According to Danske Dandridge, the plant is hardy in 

 W. Va. , increasing rapidly by tubers and becoming a 

 pest when planted with choicer plants. 



F. W. BARCLAY. 



THLASPI (Greek, crushed; referring to the strongly 

 flattened pods and seeds). Cruciferce. A genus of 25-30 

 species of annual or perennial herbs, mostly from the 

 temperate and alpine regions of the northern hemisphere. 

 Mostly inconspicuous plants with radical rosettes of 

 leaves and leafy scapes of small white, rose or pale 

 purple flowers. T. arvense, Linn., known as PENNY 

 CKE.SS, is a naturalized annual weed from Eu., 4-12 in. 

 high, simple, with terminal clusters of small flowers; 

 sepals greenish; petals white. T. alpestre, Linn., is a 

 perennial species native of the Rocky Mts. An early- 

 flowering alpine plant of a tufted habit, variable but 

 usually 2-4 in. high: sepals purplish; petals white. 

 Has been offered by collectors and is a neat little rock 

 plant. It should be given shade and a cool, moist soil. 

 V. 23:299. It differs from the European T. alpestre, 

 but apparently not by any good specific character. 



F. W. BARCLAY. 



THOMAS, JOHN JACOBS (Plate XLI), one of the 

 three pomologists who may be said to have created the 

 science in this country (the others being Patrick Barry 

 and the elder Downing), was born January 8, 1810, near 

 the lake in central New York Cayuga on the shores 

 of which he passed his life;, and died at Union Springs, 

 February 22, 1895. He was much more than a pomolo 

 gist, his studies covering nearly every branch of rural 

 industry except the breeding of live stock, and his 

 labors in the direction of adorning the surroundings of 

 country life entitling him to rank in that department 

 with the younger Downing. Two of his works, "Farm 

 Implements and Machinery," and the series of nine vol- 

 umes called "Rural Affairs," deal with the practical 

 every-day matters of life on the farm in a manner at 

 once pleasing and original, there being nothing that 

 could quite fill their place in the whole range of our 

 agricultural literature; and his incessant stream of in- 

 spiring editorials in "The Cultivator" and "The Country 

 Gentleman " for nearly sixty years covered a wide and 



diversified range of rural topics. But pomology was his 

 chief delight, and his fame rests mainly on his treatise 

 on that subject, "The American Fruit Culturist." This 

 immensely useful book first appeared, in 1846, as a 

 paper-covered 16mo of 220 pages, with 36 wood-cuts, 

 which must have been well received, inasmuch as a 

 fourth edition (dignified with muslin binding) was pub- 

 lished in the following year, and in 1849 another, en- 

 larged to 424 duodecimo pages, and "illustrated with 300 

 accurate figures." This edition appears to have been 

 reissued a few years later, with slight modifications 

 and on larger paper, and was then called the seventh. 



Up to this time, the changes in the work had been 

 chiefly in the direction of natural growth. But horti- 

 cultural knowledge was undergoing great modification; 

 and in 1867, the public still calling for the book, it reap- 

 peared in different style, newly arranged and mostly 

 rewritten, filling now considerably more than 500 pages, 

 and accompanied by almost that number of illustra- 

 tions. Rather unfortunately, this was called the "sec- 

 ond edition, "all its predecessors being probably regarded 

 as different forms of the same book, while this was sub- 

 stantially new. 



The next edition, called the "eighth revised, "appeared 

 in 1875, and had nearly 600 octavo pages and over 500 

 engravings, not to mention a colored frontispiece and 

 highly pictorial binding; and this was followed, ten 

 years later, by a revised reprint in plainer and more 

 tasteful style, illustrated with the largest number of 

 engravings yet reached, 519. This edition, the last 

 issued during the life of the author, sold well, like all 

 the others, and was long out of print and much sought 

 for. A so-called "twentieth" edition, revised and en- 

 larged by Mr. William H. S. Wood, a lifelong friend of 

 the author, with the assistance of a number of high 

 authorities, appeared in 1897, and contains over 700 

 pages and nearly 800 illustrations. Personally, Thomas 

 was one of the most lovable of men. A consistent but 

 very liberal-minded member of the "orthodox" branch 

 of the Society of Friends, he exemplified in a marked 

 degree the peculiar virtues, both robust and gentle, 

 which so commonly command, for the adherents of that 

 simple and unobtrusive faith, the respect and admira- 

 tion of those who know them. GILBERT M. TUCKER. 



THORBTTEN, GRANT (Plate XLI), founder of the 

 seedhouse of J. M. Thorburn & Co., New York, and hor- 

 ticultural author, was born in 1773 in Dalkeith, Scot- 

 land, and early came to New York to seek his fortune. 

 His father was a wrought-nail maker, and the son en 

 gaged in the same trade in this country. He soon mar- 

 ried, and his wife attended a store which he established 

 in Nassau street, near Liberty, for the selling of "tape, 

 ribbons, thimbles, thread, scissors, and Oxbery's nee- 

 dles." The living rooms were in connection. "A glass 

 door opened opposite the fireplace, where she rolled the 

 dumpling or broiled the steak with one eye, and kept a 

 squint on the store with the other." The introduction 

 of cut-nail machines deprived young Thorburn of his 

 trade, and the establishment of a pretentious grocery 

 business on the corner of Nassau and Liberty streets 

 took away his customers. He therefore gave attention 

 to other means of livelihood. The women of the city 

 had begun to show a taste for flowers. These were 

 grown in pots, and the pots were sold by grocers. In 

 the fall of 1802, there being various pots in his stock, 

 Thorburn thought to attract the attention of purchasers 

 by painting the pots green. Four pots were first 

 painted. They sold quickly. Then he painted twelve. 

 They sold; and thus the pot business grew. Thorburn 

 had been in the habit of buying his meat at the Fly 

 Market, at the foot of Maiden Lane. In April, 1803, he 

 bought a rose geranium there 1 , thinking to be able by 

 its means to still further advertise his pots. But the 

 next day a customer bought both pot and plant; -and 

 Thorburn quickly returned to the market and bought 

 two more plants. These sold; and thus the plant busi- 

 ness grew. 



The man, George Inglis, of whom Thorburn bought 

 the plants, was also a Scotchman, and it was soon 

 agreed that one should grow the plants and the other 

 sell them. But the customers also wanted to grow 

 plants, and they asked for seed; and as there was no 



