THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
175 
A NOTED NURSERYMAN. 
Thomas Meehan, Senior Vice-President of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia, the Most Widely Known Living Au¬ 
thority on the Subject of Vegetable Biology—The Intimate 
of Darwin and Agassiz—Author of Many Papers Some 
of Them Recording Discoveries In Plant Life. 
We take especial pleasure in presenting herewith a brief 
sketch of the career of Thomas Meehan, one of the most 
noted men whom nurserymen take pride in counting as of 
their number. It is reproduced from the Philadelphia 
“ Record ” of March 5 th, the occasion for it appearing in the 
introduction of the article : 
A portrait in oil of Thomas Meehan, senior vice-president 
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, has just been completed 
by the well-known artist, James L. Wood, and will very 
shortly.'adorn the wall of the institu¬ 
tion mentioned. Throughout his 
long career as a scientist, Mr. 
Meehan has steadfastly avoided 
publicity of every kind, and it was 
with difficulty that his brother 
scientists prevailed on him to sit 
for his portrait and consentt o join 
the gallery of eminent men already 
possessed by the academy. 
Mr. Meehan, now recognized as 
the most widely known living au¬ 
thority on the subject of vegetable 
biology, comes of mixed Irish and 
English parentage, and was born in 
London, March 21 , 1826 . His 
father was one of the best known 
private gardeners in England, and 
until his death served in that 
capacity at St. Clare, Colonel Har- 
court’s magnificent residence, near 
Ryde, Isle of Wight. 
Thomas was the eldest of a large 
family, and his school education 
was limited and brief. He was a 
hard student, however, and the 
greater part of his knowledge is due 
to his own unaided efforts. Dur¬ 
ing intervals while learning the gardener’s business, he 
taught himself the rudiments of Latin, Greek and French ; 
and at the age of 14 published his first scientific discovery 
in a paper on the sensitive character of the stamens of the 
portulaca. About the same time he produced a hybrid 
between two distinct species of fuchsias (fulgens and longi- 
flora), which was named St. Clare. This precocity attracted 
the attention of Dr. Thomas Bell Salter and some other promi¬ 
nent English botanists, and they greatly assisted him in 
pursuing that study. Through Dr. Salter's influence he 
entered the famous Kew Gardens as a student while Sir 
William Hooker was in charge there. 
On the invitation of Robert Buist he came to this country. 
Mr. Meehan landed in New York on his twenty-second birth¬ 
day, and was given the task of establishing Mr. Buist’s new 
nurseries at Rosedale in West Philadelphia. Subsequently he 
became superintendent of Bartram’s Gardens, then owned by 
the Eastwick family ; and early in the fifties, head gardener for 
Caleb Cope, at his Holmesburg property, now the Forrest 
Home. While at the latter place, he succeeded in flowering 
the Victoria Regia, for the first time in America. 
I ^S 3 Mr. Meehan entered business for himself as a nur¬ 
seryman in Upper Dublin, shortly after founding and establish¬ 
ing nurseries at Germantown, where to-day are grown the 
largest and finest deciduous trees in the country. Just prior 
to this he had been invited to edit the Gardener’s Monthly, 
founded by D. Rodney King, and continued its editor for 30 
years, until the death of the owner, Charles H. Marot, and the 
sale of the paper to a New York concern. In addition to this 
and the control of his business interests, Mr. Meehan at one 
time edited departments in six other journals. He is one of 
the oldest living members of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and was one of the first fellow’s 
chosen, besides holding member¬ 
ship in many other botanical and 
scientific organizations here and in 
Europe. He was elected a mem¬ 
ber of the Royal Wernerian Society 
of Edinburgh before reaching the 
age of 21 , this being the first time 
such honor had been conferred on 
a minor. 
The intimate of Darwin, Agassiz 
and other giants, Mr. Meehan was 
elected vice-president of the 
Academy of Natural Sciences as a 
compromise candidate, 24 years 
ago, and has held the office un¬ 
interruptedly ever since. Nearly 
40 years ago, in conjunction with 
Durand, and later Redfield, he 
commenced the arrangement of 
the herbarium at the academy, 
which work will be completed in 
a month or two from this time. 
He is now head of the botanical 
section, and ex-officio, a member of 
the Academy Council. 
It is said that during his life Mr. 
Meehan has written several hun¬ 
dred papers, a large pioportion of 
which recorded original observations or discoveries. One of 
the latter determined the fact that conditions of vitality 
determine sex in flowers. This theory has been extended in 
other directions by medical scientists. In the fifties he pub¬ 
lished “The Handbook of Ornamental Trees,” and began in 
1876 his great work “Flowers and Ferns of the United 
States,” published for some time by Prang & Co , and con¬ 
tinued in Meehans’ Monthly. 
Elected 24 years ago a member of the School Board for the 
Twenty-second section, Mr. Meehan served continuous^ until 
now. For 19 years he has represented the Twenty-second 
ward in Common Council, and now divides with one other 
member the honor of being Father of that body. He was 
the originator of the movement in favor of public parks, 
creator of the Municipal Government and Fairmount Park 
Committees, and was the founder of the great Commercial 
Museum, of which he is now a trustee. 
The portrait, now the property of the academy, is very 
happily executed. The pose secured is characteristic, and 
the coloring true to life. 
Thomas Meehan. 
