THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
69 
Search was made for the body of the stranger, but in 
vain, nor was any trace of his stock found among the posses¬ 
sions of the unhappy Micah. If a load of crime rested upon 
the conscience of the suspected farmer it never forced a 
confession from his lips. His farm drifted gradually into 
decay, and, too broken down to reclaim it, he wandered 
about town, disordered in mind and body. 
He died in 1728, but while the blood-spotted apple 
continues to grow his name and history will be perpetuated. 
— Green's Fruit Grower. 
-- 
Mr. J. W. McNary, proprietor of Dayton and Xenia 
Nmseries, died December 31st, 1912, of pneumonia, aged 
fifty-five (55) years. 
Mr. McNary was born in Harrison 
county, Ohio. Grew up on a farm 
to young manhood. He then en¬ 
gaged in the real estate business with 
an uncle in Logansport, Indiana, for. 
a short time. Was later engaged in 
canvassing for a nursery firm in 
Central Ohio for a few years. In 
1880 Mr. McNary came to Dayton 
and was made secretary of the 
Hoover & Gaines Nursery Company. 
Mr. McNary leaves a widow, one 
daughter and two sons. 
As we go to press it is with much 
regret we are informed of the death 
of T. V. Munson, of Dennison, 
Texas, who died at eight o’clock 
January 21st. Mr. Munson was 
one of the pioneer nurserymen of 
Texas, and has done much for the 
development of the fruit growing 
interests of that part of the country. 
He was an authority on the grape, having raised a con¬ 
siderable number of hybrids by hybridizing with the native 
sorts. 
HISTORY OF PLANT CLASSIFICATION 
The history of the philosophical, scientific 'classification of 
plants is an interesting study. It takes us back to the time 
of Theophrastus, Pliny, and Dioscorides, whose classification, 
however, of the plants they knew was in such simple terms as 
herbs, shrubs., trees, and cereals. The ancients had no actual 
system of classification. The scientific study of plants 
began in the sixteenth century, when several famous herbals 
were published, including those of Otto Brunsfel (Strasburg, 
1530); William Turner, “the father of English botany’’; 
L’Obel (Antwerp, 1576); and John Gerarde (London, 1597). 
But plants were still classified in groups based on well- 
marked characters, such as broad or narrow leaves, bulbous 
or rhizomatous roots, or as fungi, UmbelliJercB* Siellatce 
(Rubiacece), Veriicilke (LabiaUe), and according to other 
general forms and manner of growth. The primary division 
was still into woody and herbaceous plants. 
It appears to have been Caesalpino, an Italian, late in the 
sixteenth century, who first “studied the arrangements of 
plants from a philosophical point of view,’’ and was the 
earliest to conclude that a natural classification “must be 
based on the characters of the flower, seed, and embryo.’’ 
But the first scientific monograph on the fruit as a central 
subject of study was by the botanist, Robert Morison (1672). 
At a slightly later date the celebrated John Ray evolved a 
broad, general classification, and he was the first to distinguish 
the two great divisions of flowering plants, namely, the 
monocotyledons and the dicotyledons. 
Toumefort follows. He invented an artificial system 
which had a considerable vogue because of its accurate 
definitions of genera; and he was succeeded by the great 
Linnseus (born 1707), whose “sexual 
system’’ was found to be so con¬ 
venient, being based upon one set of 
organs, that it obtained universal 
adoption, and held sway for a long 
time. Eventually, however, it was 
discarded in favour of Linnaeus’s 
natural system, which A. L. de Jussieu 
(bom 1748) developed, and whose 
nephew still further improved. 
Following upon this the two de 
Candolles, father and son, “showed 
that the relationship of plants is 
ascertained by the comparative study 
of the form and development of organs 
(morphology)—not of their functions 
(physiology). Dr. Lindley, in our 
own country, further assisted on 
these lines. The reasoning, researches, 
and records of these botanists carried 
the science of classification a long step 
forward. Contemporaneously, Robert 
Brown, a greatly distinguished sav¬ 
ant, had been investigating certain 
difficult morphological points in regard to seeds, and to him 
is due the discovery of the differences between Angiosperms 
(flowering plants) and Gymnosperms (conifers). During the 
last forty or fifty years the names of Endleicher, Hofmeister, 
Bentham, Hooker, Eichler, and Engler have each been 
identified with certain definite work in the building up of 
this science. At the present day Engler’s represents the 
most generally accepted system of plant classification.— 
Journal of Horticulture. 
A deal was closed the finst of the year, whereby The 
Northwest Nursery Co., of Valley City, North Dakota, 
sold its interest in the Prairie Nurseries, Ltd., of Estevan, 
Saskatchewan to the residents of Estevan. The new man¬ 
agement consists of E. C. Hilborn, President; W. J. Perkins, 
Vice-President; Theodore Torgeson, Secretary-Treasurer. 
Mr. Torgeson will also be Managing-director and H. C. 
Sandberg will be superintendent of propagation. The com¬ 
pany is extensively enlarging its nursery and is planning 
to thoroughly canvass Saskatchewan with its salesforce. 
J. W. McNARY. 
