April 9, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



173 



GARDEN AND FOREST. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



THE GARDEN AND FOREST PUBLISHING CO. 



Office : Tribune Building, New York. 



Conducted by Professor C. S. Sargent. 



ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE AT NEW YORK, N. Y. 



NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1890. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Editorial Articles : — George Thurber. — Forest Legislation in Congress 173 



The Parterre, Fontainebleau. (Illustrated.) 1 74 



Methods of Botanical Study Professor W. J. Beal. 174 



Exotic Palms in Florida Theodore L. Mead. 175 



New or Little Known Plants: — Lycoris squamigera. (With figure.).. S. W. 176 

 Cultural Department :— The Comparative Liability of Trees to Disease. 



y. G. Jack. 176 



Grapes for Family Use E. Williams. 178 



Stapelias '. W. Watson. 179 



Orchid Notes J. Weathers. 180 



Andromeda floribunda, Cercidiphyllum Japonicum Joseph Meehan. 180 



Foxgloves, Japanese Anemones H. 181 



Perpetual Carnations John Thorpe. 181 



Correspondence: — An American Arboretum in Germany H. Christ. 181 



Common Names of Plants Edward L. Rand. 182 



Notes on a Few Plants in West Virginia W. E. Hill. 182 



A Chart of Standard Colors Max Leichilin, Professor L. H. Bailey. 183 



Easter Flowers 5. 183 



Recent Publications 183 



Recent Plant Portraits 183 



Notes 184 



Illustrations : — Lycoris squamigera. Fig. 32 177 



The Parterre, Fontainebleau 179 



George Thurber. 



THE death of Dr. George Thurber ends the career of the 

 most accomplished horticultural writer America has 

 produced. Dr. Thurber was born in Providence, Rhode 

 Island, in 1821, and early became interested in botany in 

 connection with pharmaceutical studies which he took up 

 in preparation for his business as an apothecary, which he 

 conducted in his native city. His love of plants, however, 

 was strong, and brought him into relations with Dr. John 

 Torrey, of this city, then the leader among American bot- 

 anists and a man whose influence was widely felt. It 

 changed entirely Thurber's career, and secured for him, in 

 1850, the position of naturalist, to which were added the 

 duties of quartermaster and commissary, of the United 

 States and Mexican Boundary Survey. He was attached 

 to the headquarter's party under command of Mr. John 

 Russell Bartlett, the principal commissioner for the United 

 States, and was actively engaged during four years in ex- 

 ploring the natural products of the country between the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. These journeys 

 extended to nearly five thousand miles, and carried the 

 party into regions which were, at that time, entirely un- 

 known, scientifically. Thurber "was indefatigable," to 

 use Mr. Bartlett's words, "in his exertions to make thor- 

 ough examinations and complete collections of everything 

 belonging to his department. " He discovered many new 

 plants within the limits of the United States and in north- 

 ern Mexico, where the party made several long and ex- 

 ceedingly arduous journeys. The most interesting of his 

 new plants were published by Asa Gray (" Plantae Novae 

 Thurberianae ") in 1854, the name of the discoverer being 

 there commemorated in a new Hibiscus-like plant, Thur- 

 beria thespesioides, which he had found in Sonora in 185 1. 



Dr. Thurber, the duties of the Commission being com- 

 pleted, returned to this city and accepted a position 

 in the Assay office, from which he resigned on account 

 of political differences with the authorities, and devoted 

 himself to chemical and botanical studies, lecturing on 

 these subjects at the Cooper Union and before the New 

 York College of Pharmacy. In 1859 he was chosen to the 



Professorship of Botany and Horticulture in the Agricul- 

 tural College of Michigan, a position which he held until 

 1863, when he became editor of the American Agriculturist, 

 of this city. This place he filled with singular success for 

 twenty-two years, when he was compelled, by failing 

 health, to relinquish the active control of the paper, al- 

 though he continued to contribute to its columns and give 

 it the benefit of his counsel until within a few months of 

 his death. Dr. Thurber's influence as editor of a widely 

 read popular journal was great. His writing was charac- 

 terized always by sound common sense based on exact 

 knowledge of many subjects, and they did more in his 

 time to elevate the standing of the agricultural and horti- 

 cultural press of the country than the writings of any other 

 man. He possessed a charming style and a rare facility 

 for explaining the most complex subjects in clear and sim- 

 ple language. This gift made the " Doctor's Talks," which 

 he contributed during many years to the American Agricul- 

 turist, and which w r ere intended to instruct young people 

 upon scientific subjects, models of their kind. Of horticul- 

 tural matters he wrote out of a full knowledge, as his gar- 

 den at Passaic, New Jersey, an experimental garden in the 

 true sense of the word, was one of the most interesting in 

 this country. In this garden he found the pleasures of his 

 later years, and these pleasures he shared with the public 

 through his "Notes from the Pines." 



Dr. Thurber's editorial work was not confined to the 

 columns of the American Agriculturist. The publishers of 

 that journal were large publishers, also, of books relating 

 to country life, and most of these passed under Dr. Thur- 

 ber's critical eye, or, in some cases, were entirely rewritten 

 by his hand. He published, in 1859, "American Weeds 

 and Useful Plants," an enlarged and greatly improved edi- 

 tion of Darlington's "Agricultural Botany," which is still 

 the standard work on the subject, and he contributed the 

 articles upon botanical subjects to "Appleton's Cyclo- 

 paedia." Dr. Thurber's predilections in botany were for 

 what may be called agricultural botany. This led him to 

 make a systematic study of Grasses, and his knowledge of 

 these plants was unequaled for many years in the United 

 States. It was his intention to prepare a monograph of 

 American Grasses, but editorial duties and failing health, 

 undermined by "the hardships of the Mexican boundary, 

 compelled him to abandon this undertaking, for which he 

 was otherwise admirably equipped ; and of late years he 

 has been able to do little beyond occasional contributions 

 to the press. His very last work, written almost on his 

 death-bed, was published in this journal a few weeks ago. 



Dr. Thurber was a man of great knowledge and of the 

 broadest sympathies ; kind, faithful and true, generous to 

 a fault, simple in the ways of the world, and always more 

 interested in the welfare of others than in advancing his 

 own interests. His death removes an interesting and 

 picturesque figure, and a man who will never be forgotten 

 by his friends. 



The bill for the protection of forest-lands on the public 

 domain, which was introduced in the House of Repre- 

 sentatives by Mr. Dunnell, of Minnesota, embodies sub- 

 stantially the provisions which have been advocated in 

 these columns — namely, the withdrawal of all government 

 forest-land from sale and entry, and the temporary protec- 

 tion of such forests by the army until a competent Com- 

 mission, appointed by the President, shall report a plan for 

 their permanent administration. This bill goes before a 

 sub-committee of the Public Lands Committee of the 

 House, consisting of Hon. Lewis F. Watson, of Pennsyl- 

 vania; Hon. Erastus D. Turner, of Kansas ; Hon. Joseph 

 M. Carey, of Wyoming, and Hon. John Quinn, of New 

 York. The Law Committee of the Pennsylvania Forestry 

 Association has issued a timely circular calling upon its 

 members to write to any of the representatives on this 

 Congressional sub-committee with whom they may be 

 acquainted, and present such facts and arguments as may 

 be at their command in favor of the passage of the Dunnell 



