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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, March 6 , 1860. 
GRAFTING LATE IN THE SPRING. 
The very judicious and practical remarks recently made by 
Mr. Robson in The Cottage Gardener, on the time for graft¬ 
ing fruit trees, are worthy of all acceptation, and should (living 
as Mr. Robson does, in the “garden of England,” combined 
with his practical knowledge), put aside the “old idea, that 
grafting should be done in March.” I can bear ocular demon¬ 
stration to Mr. Robson’s advice, having grafted some hundreds in 
the month of May, with 'scarcely a single failure, and I believe 
that the end of April and beginning of May arc the best times for 
grafting Apples and Pears. 
Will one of your able correspondents assign the reason why 
Pears thrive so luxuriantly on the Crab stock the first season 
after being grafted, making from four to five feet of wood, and 
die the second year ?—J. Perkins, Thorriham Rail , Suffolk. 
[We shall be obliged by any of our readers who have grafted 
Pears upon Crab stocks, stating the results of their experiments. 
We should like to know if root-grafting were tried; also the 
names of the varieties, and whether any continued vigorous 
longer than others.— Eds. C. G.] 
THE LATE THOMAS NUTTALL. 
Mr. Thomas Nuttall was born at Settle, in Yorkshire, 
England, in 1784. His parents were what is termed in England 
respectable, but in moderate circumstances, and Nuttall received 
but the common rudiments of an English education. He was 
apprenticed to a printer, as a matter of his own choice, and so 
improved his time as to acquire a thorough knowledge of the 
Greek and Latin languages. In the pursuit of his calling he 
emigrated to the United States when at the age of twenty- 
two, and was employed for a time at his business in Phila¬ 
delphia. He always had a taste for Natural History, and at¬ 
tended all lectures on scientific subjects ; and, having obtained 
an introduction to Dr. Barton, the botanist, at the conclusion 
of one of his lectures, he was referred for further information 
to the celebrated William Bartram, and to the kindness and 
attention he received from him, whom he often refers to in his 
works as “his venerable friend,” the world is indebted for the 
sealing of those scientific proclivities which have since made 
his name famous. 
Perhaps the first “little thing” that induced his eai’ly at¬ 
tendance on these lectures, he many years after related to his 
Mend Dr. Pickering. The morning after his arrival in Phila¬ 
delphia, he took a walk beyond the Schuylkill, and seeing a 
Smilax climbing a tree, said to himself—“Egad! there’s a 
Passion-Flower!” Returning, he inquired for a “ Botany Book," 
and was told that a Dr. Barton had written one, but he could 
not find it at any of the stores, and so sought an introduction 
eventually to the Doctor himself. This was in 1808. From 
this time forward his progress in botanical science was very 
rapid, gathering his knowledge as he had done his past educa¬ 
tion, by his own efforts alone. His botanical trips were repeated 
and arduous, one of his earliest being to investigate thoroughly 
the Peninsula formed by the Delaware and the Chesapeake. 
As his knowledge of things “ at home ” became more perfect, 
he thirsted for more information, and boldly penetrated, usually 
alone, many hundreds of miles into the interior, making friends 
even of the most savage children of the forest. On one of 
these excursions, five hundred miles beyond the pale of civi¬ 
lisation, he was taken sick. Entirely alone, and after every 
remedy had failed, he composed himself to die. He was 
found by an IndiaD, who placed him in a canoe and rowed him 
down a river to the region of the white man. Mr. Nuttall 
seems to have been much attached to the Indian races. From 
his peculiar (to them) habits of gathering plants, he was called 
by them, “ the pale-face medicine man,” and throughout his 
whole works he seldom misses an opportunity to record his 
generous feelings towards them. Knowing their proclivities for 
whiskey, Mr. Nuttall used to supply himself with this novel 
pacificator for cases of emergency, but never employed it when 
any other agent would answer as well. Mr. Nuttall used often 
to say, to the amusement of his Mends, that amongst the pro¬ 
voking annoyances that he would at times be subjected to, one 
was the drainage of his spirit bottles by some stealthy Indian, 
leaving his snakes and lizards dry ! 
The result of his trips and studies was, in 1818, the produc¬ 
tion of the “ Genera of North American Plants,” which at once 
placed him on a footing with the highest in the scientific world, 
and the work is still received as a standard authority. The cost 
of these journeys, one of which extended to the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, was borne by friends he had made in Philadelphia— 
generous friends of science ; amongst whom may be mentioned 
L’Abbe Correa de Serra, to whom he dedicated this work; 
Zaccheus Collins, in whose memory he dedicated the “ Collin- 
sia;” Dr. Barton and Reuben Haines. During the preparation 
ot his work, ho spent nearly two years at the Academy of 
Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, studying and identifying his 
plants, often remaining up all night, and when tired lying down 
under the bones of the great Mastodon for repose. 
One great characteristic of the man was his readiness to 
listen to suggestions from any quarter respecting his favourite 
science, and much of his success was, doubtless, owing to this 
modesty of his nature. At the suggestion of Dr. Darlington, he 
properly removed the genus Obolaria from the Linn scan class 
Didynamia to that of Tetrandria, after the same suggestion had 
been ineffectually made to other authors. He was in fact, 
emphatically, a listener. Though frequently an honoured guest 
at the fashionable Wistar and other Parties of Savans in Phila¬ 
delphia, he had never anything to say, until “brought out;” 
but when once the ice of a first introduction was broken, he 
was very communicative and free with his observations and 
knowledge. 
After he had finished his “ Genera,” he determined to ex¬ 
plore the region of country watered by the Arkansas River, and 
on the I8th of October, 1818, started alone on his perilous trip. 
He went the whole distance from Lancaster to Pittsburg on 
foot, and taking a small skiff at the latter place, was joined by a 
young stranger, and the two went alone down the river, arriving 
at the mouth of the Arkansas, after many perils and hair¬ 
breadth escapes, on the 16th of January, 1819. He was a whole 
year employed in this trip, returning to New Orleans on the 
18th of December, having a second time nearly lost his life by 
fever and disease. It was on this trip that he discovered the 
Collinsia, at Fort Lee; we believe also the Madura, and 
many other things. For the means to prosecute this trip, in 
addition to the names before given, W. McClure (to whom he 
dedicated the “ Maclura”), and John Vaughan, largely con¬ 
tributed. 
The journal of his travels here was published in 1821, and 
filled with highly interesting matter; but, unfortunately, was a 
poor speculation to his printer, through the absence of all 
anecdote and lightness, which, contrary to the strong advice of 
his friends, he would not admit. This was one marked trait in 
his character. He hated everything that savoured of vanity or 
needless show, always aiming at the real and substantial. He 
was, however, well aware that such a course did not please the 
public, and often deplored that “he lived in an age that no 
longer tolerated the plain, unvarnished tale.” He carried this 
habit of simplicity always with him. Flis dress, though always 
neat, was chosen with a view to service; sometimes on his 
journeys, made of leather, and fitted to his person; and, 
probably, in no event of bis life did pecuniary considerations 
influence him. His income was mainly derived from lectures, 
given in Germantown and Philadelphia, and the private sale of 
his collections and specimens. Often his new plants would get 
into nurserymen’s hands, who would allow him something for 
them. We remember particularly Diplacus puniceus, on which 
Mr. Buist gave him half the proceeds of the sale. His lectures 
were the means of inducing many young men to turn their 
attention to scientific pursuits; making handsome fortunes for 
some of them, by the knowledge gained. Indeed, one of our 
most prominent millionaires makes no secret of the influence 
which the example, assistance, and friendship of Mr. Nuttall, 
had in encouraging in him the study of the sciences of 
mineralogy and chemistry, from which his first success in life 
began. 
Soon after tbe publication of his Arkansas travels, he was, in 
1822, appointed Professor of Natural History at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts. 
While in Boston he engaged closely in the study of other 
branches of natural history; and in 1827 his “ Introduction to 
Systematic and Physiological Botany ” appeared, and in 1832 
his well-known work in ornithology. He obtained much popu¬ 
larity at Cambridge as a lecturer on botany and materia medica, 
and did much towards diffusing amongst apothecaries a know¬ 
ledge of the drugs they dealt in; many of which he showed were 
obtained from other plants than they were popularly supposed 
to be. 
He never, however, felt at home in his professorship ; his 
active mind yearned for sterner occupations in the field of nature, 
