8 PETER HENDERSON. 



away left a void in thousands of hearts, perhaps only we 

 who knew him best and loved him most, can thorough- 

 ly realize. 



Yet, had we in any sense, failed to understand or ap- 

 preciate either the magnitude of his services to Ameri- 

 can horticulture, or the grandeur of his character, the 

 host of sympathetic messages, which in the dark days fol- 

 lowing his death, fell fluttering at our feet, would have 

 been all-potent reminders of our irreparable loss.* 



That this remarkable man, possessed in an unusual 

 degree, the power to invest all he said, wrote, or did, with 

 his strong, dominant, yet kindly personality, there was no 

 doubt, and while the reasons were as clear and simple 

 as his own irreproachable life, here we can only outline 

 a few of the many noble attributes with which he was 

 endowed. 



Turning first to his business career, it will be found 

 that his straightforward and generous dealings with 

 over a million people, extending over forty years, made 

 his name from the outset, a synonym for all that 

 is honorable in trade, and yet such characteristics alone, 

 could scarcely have evoked the thousands of touching 

 tributes his death called forth, for while great business 

 success honorably achieved, should always command our 

 admiration, still after all, such distinction is ephemeral, 

 unless supplemented by deeds or works that will endure 

 long after commercial success has been forgotten. Few 

 are the business houses that last for a generation, and 

 fewer still are they, on whose roofs the mosses of a 

 century rest. 



But it is when we approach Peter Henderson, the horti- 

 cultural writer, that we find his power and personality 

 displayed in the highest degree. " Gardening for Profit " 

 published in 1866, was the first book ever written ex- 

 clusively on market gardening in this country, that, and 

 also his subsequent works have ever since been recog- 

 nized as the highest American authorities on the subjects 



* From the day of his death up to this time, November, 1890, the family of Mr. 

 Henderson have received from all parts of the world, nearly eight thousand letters of 

 sympathy and condolence. 



