42 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



reach the sunset shore, when I must 

 bid farewell to things of earth. But if 

 I can have the happiness to know that 

 I have done anything' to promote the 

 comfort of mankind, I shall feel that I 

 have not lived in vain. And so I shall 

 continue to work on in the same old 

 way while life and strength shall last." 



At the January meeting of the Massa- 

 shusetts Horticultural Society, a mem- 

 orial was prepared by Mr. Wm. Strong. 

 In presenting it he said : " Others will 

 dwell upon the traits which gave him 

 success in the various fields of his use- 

 fulness. We turn rather to notice his 

 characteristics in his favorite pursuit of 

 horticulture. In this he is best known. 

 Here he did his best service for his fel- 

 low-men. It was indeed a favorite 

 pursuit, a genuine love. While ea^aged 

 in a large commercial business, Tie yet 

 found^ime for extensive importation 

 and cultivation of a great variety of 

 hardy and exotic fruits, plants and ag- 

 ricultural products ; being one of the 

 earliest introducers, and always on the 

 alert to obtain and test new kinds. 

 This enthusiasm was life-long, and was 

 as hearty in the cultivation of pseonies 

 as pears, or in the case of camellias or 

 m* dahlias or azaleas as of raspberries 

 and sti-a wherries. Undeniably he was 

 stimulated by a desire to exhibit the 

 best ; but before and deeper than this 

 was a hearty interest in every form of 

 cultivation of mother Earth. From my 

 earliest acquaintance with Mr. Wilder, 

 more than thirty years since, I recall a 

 reverent appreciation of the wisdom and 

 goodness of the Creator in all his ma- 

 terial works. And I think as the years 

 went by a steady and a marked increase 

 of ihis feeling was to be noticed, a lead- 

 ing from Nature up to Nature's God, 

 so that he gave frequent expression of 

 his gratitude to the Infinite Ruler of the 

 Universe. 



" We shall love to recall the picture 

 of this pati'iarch as he walked among 



his plants watching to obtain some new 

 results and improvements by crossing 

 and varied culture. It seemed as 

 though his occupation was to him the 

 very elixir of life, imparting to him a 

 perennial youth. How diftei-ent in its 

 result from a life spent in the absorbing 

 and selfish pursuit of gain or worldly 

 ambition ! And yet in other respects 

 Mr. Wilder was an old man — his life 

 was completed ; his was a sublime old 

 age, full of good works. The world is 

 better, how much better, for his living 

 in it ! Long shall we cherish his 

 memory ; long may we be stimulated 

 by his example." 



Mr. Robert Manning, the Secretary, 

 said : — 



He had hoped that Mr. Wilder 

 might live to the meeting of his favorite 

 society, the American Pomological 

 Society, in this city in September next, 

 but it has been differently and, we can- 

 not doubt, more wisely ordered. He 

 himself felt deeply the uncertainty of 

 his stay until that time, for in the ad- 

 dress which he prepared for the meeting 

 at Grand Rapids, Mich., in September, 

 1885, after expressing his regret that he 

 was unable to be there personally, he 

 said in words that now seem j^rophetic, 

 " I console myself with the hope that 

 you will accept the invitation of the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society 

 and come to Boston in 1887, when I 

 may be permitted to lay off the I'obes 

 of office with which you have so long 

 honored me, unless, ere that lime, I 

 shall have been clothed with the robes 

 of immortality and gone up to gather 

 celestial fruits, which ripen not in 

 earthly climes." 



One of Mr. Wilder's most prominent 

 characteristics was the perpetual youth 

 which, in spite of the infirmities of age, 

 he carried with him, and which led 

 Governor Long, in his speech at the 

 meeting of the American Pomological 

 Society in 1881, to speak of him as at 



