In Memoriam— Jackson Thornton Dawson \ 
IN the death of Jackson Thornton Dawson, which oc- 
curred in the Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain, 
Mass., on August 3, America lost one of its most 
distinguished and highly esteemed horticulturists, a man 
who for several decades held a most unique position in his 
profession and whose place it will be very difficult to ade- 
quately fill. 
Mr. Dawson was a Yorkshireman by birth and first saw 
the light of dav in 1841. He came to America when very 
young and at the early age of eight years started to work 
for his uncle, a nurseryman in Aiulover, Mass. He, there- 
fore, had limited opportunities for education, such as exist 
today, yet the work he has accomplished has been nothing 
less than marvelous. He worked for some years for the 
celebrated nursery of Hovey & Company at Cambridge, 
Mass.. at that time the most noted establishment in the 
new world for new, rare and choice plants. He later 
worked as horticulturist at the Brussey Institute and in 
the early seventies was called by Prof. C. S. Sargent to 
assist him in making anil developing the Arnold Arbore- 
tum, which now covers over 260 acres and contains the 
most complete collection of trees and shrubs from tem- 
JACKSON THORNTON DAWSON. 
perate regions to be found anywhere in America. For 
over forty years Mr. Dawson labored to make the Arnold 
Arboretum the mecca of lovers of trees and shrubs in 
the new world, and his work in this respect is even more 
highly appreciated in Europe than in America. 
As a propagator, Mr. Dawson was a veritable marvel. 
He could take the most refractory subjects and propagate 
them with comparative ease. He seemed to have an al- 
most uncanny intuition as to how a plant could be propa- 
gated by merely looking at it, and the list of difficult 
subjects which he propagated of seeds, grafts, layers and 
roots in many ways would require a volume to describe. 
The writer might instance acacia pubescens and one diffi- 
cult of propagation. Mr. Dawson grafted this plant and 
had specimens over seven feet high when a year old, 
while cuttings rooted at the same time were merely a 
few inches high. 
Mr. Dawson was a passionate lover of plants. It has 
been said that plants respond to affection. They certainly 
did in wondrous measure under his care. The modest 
little propagating house near Mr. Dawson's residence has 
been visited by thousands of tree lovers and none visited 
it without gathering some inspiration from seeing the 
astounding number of trees and shrubs being raised from 
cuttings, layers, seeds and grafts which had come from 
China, Japan, Russia, South Africa and other distant 
lands. Thousands of varieties have been propagated in 
this one little house and specimens by hundreds of 
thousands have been distributed to all parts of Europe 
and North America. 
Every caller at the Arnold Arboretum who met Mr. 
Dawson knew instinctively that he had met a rare genius 
and many of our wealthiest citizens, both here and abroad, 
were proud to know him as a friend. He was genial, kind 
hearted, ever ready to impart knowledge, and all those 
who labored as his assistants through nearly half a cen- 
tury have nothing but words of praise for him. 
W. N. Craig, 
President National Association of Gardeners. 
The passing of Jackson Dawson removes one of the 
conspicuous American horticulturists of the past half 
century. Previous to the Civil War associated with 
Hovey, the gazetteer and pioneer of two generations ago. 
Mr. Dawson resumed his connection on the conclusion 
of peace and after an honorable discharge. 
Horticulture of fifty years ago was in a primitive stage, 
literature was scant, foreign practices were in vogue and 
pioneer experiences typified the calling; the new country 
was evolving practices suited to the new world and by 
adoption of exotic methods and creating anew hitherto 
unknown codes, the young student had an opportunity to 
share in a rich and valuable experience. 
That it was fully appreciated by the young scholar was 
convincingly shown by his later life. His work bridges 
the gap between the present day school of horticultural 
practice and that of two generations ago. 
He belonged to that age that gave us such men as 
Ellwanger, Meehan, Parsons and Berry. Plorticultural 
practice was in the refining process, empiricism had to be 
eradicated, knowledge spread abroad and sane and scien- 
tific experiment reviewed in proper perspective. 
Into this field of endeavor Jackson Dawson gravitated 
by fitness and selection. During his earlier years he was 
a frequent writer in technical magazines and often ap- 
peared as lecturer before societies and various organiza- 
tions interested in plants and their culture. 
Mr. Dawson was distinctly a lover of plants; his en- 
thusiasm and tireless energy when in quest of some rare, 
inaccessible or localized plant for a view thereof, a stock 
or as a guide of others, he knew no limit short of suc- 
cess. The greater the hazard and more difficult the task, 
the more certain would his insatiable determination 
attack it and almost invariably wrest victory where others 
found defeat. 
He was steeped in plant lore and never tired of dis- 
cussing it with his friends. His work at the Arboretum, 
where scientific investigation was ever under way, gave 
him peculiar opportunity to quench his thirst for knowl- 
(Cont'mued on page 366.) 
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