If) 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
fruit depended a great deal on the cooperation between 
lhe grower of the trees and the producer of the liuil. 
11 is hoped that a good live program will he arranged 
for Hu* meeting of December 1923. Meeting adjourned. 
TENNESEE STATE NURSERYMEN’S ASSOCIATION 
The annual Convention of the State Horticultural So¬ 
ciety, the annual Convention of the Tennessee State 
Nurserymen’s Association and the State Beekeepers As¬ 
sociation will he held in Nashville, January 30th-31st 
and February 1st respectively. Three sessions, one in the 
morning, afternoon and evening, will he devoted to each 
of these Conventions during the three days. The head¬ 
quarters selected are Hotel Hermitage and from letters 
received and the interest taken the Convention will have 
a large attendance. 
The Horticultural Society has a paid up membership 
of 252, the State Nurserymen’s Association 174, and llie 
State Beekeepers’ 123. 
For other announcements and programs write to the 
Secretary, Professor G. M. Bently, 406 Morrill Hall, Uni¬ 
versity of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee. 
CONNECTICUT NURSERYMEN’S ASSOCIATION 
The Connecticut Nurserymen’s Association will hold 
its annual meeting at the City Club, Hartford, Connecti¬ 
cut. on Wednesday, January 24th. 
F. J. Rippin, 
Secretary. 
EASTERN NURSERYMEN’S ASSOCIATION 
The annual meeting of the Eastern Nurserymen’s Asso¬ 
ciation will be held on January 17, 1923, at 10 o’clock, 
at the 
Adelphia Hotel, Philadelphia,, Pa. 
The Executive Committee has arranged a very inter¬ 
esting program and for a special luncheon to he served 
for the members. 
Every member is expected to attend. The association 
was organized about a year ago to look after the inter¬ 
ests of the nursery trade in the Middle Atlantic States 
and a strong effort is being made to get every nursery¬ 
man in the district to become a member. 
GORDONIA PUBESCENS 
An article appeared in the 
ton, D. C. reviving interest in 
or Franklinia Alatamalia as the 
Evening Star” Washing- 
the Gordonia Pubescens 
newspaper has it. 
TRACE OF AMERICA'S LOST TREE 
SOUGHT IN EXPEDITION TO GEORGIA 
Only Half Dozen Remain in World, Willi Chevy Chase 
and Hyattsville Having Some of Them 
Steps for the conservation of two of the remaining half dozen 
or so specimens of the famous “lost tree” of America, the almost 
extinct Franklinia genus, growing in Chevy Chase Circle, are 
to be taken by private interests in view of the lack of public 
funds, it is disclosed. 
The National Lumber Manufacturers’ Association learned of 
the plight of these lonely survivors of an old and exclusive 
American forest line and volunteered all necessary assistance, 
only to find that the Chevy Chase Citizens Association and 1 . 
L. Richer and Edgar T. Wherry, scientists of the Department of 
Agriculture, already had taken up the task. It will consist of 
pruning the neighboring trees in the neglected park thicket to 
admit more sunlight and in cultivating and acidulating the earth 
around the two Franklinias. Now, that these trees are to be 
saved, if possible, the National Lumber Manufacturers’ Associa¬ 
tion has taken up the question of whether the Franklinia is 
really lost in its natural environment, and is contemplating the 
sending of an expedition to make a systematic search for the 
lost tree in the limited range once occupied by it in southern 
Georgia. 
The Franklinia was first found by John Bartram of Philadei 
phia, in 1765, in the Altamaha river valley in Georgia, near Fort 
Barrington, and had never been found elsewhere. Bartram had 
the distinction of being botanist to the King of England, and 
was in Georgia on a botanical collecting trip when he found 
these rare trees and named them after Benjamin Franklin. The 
region was revisited by his son, William Bartram, in 1773, and 
again in 1778, when he collected Franklinia seed to distribute 
among nurserymen in this country and Europe. In 1790 Dr. 
Moses Marshall visited the Fort Barrington region and identified 
the trees. So far as known this is the last time any of them 
were “officially” seen in the original locality. There is no 
definite record concerning Franklinia from 1790 to 1881, al¬ 
though nurserymen repeatedly visited the Fort Barrington 
region to get seedlings and seeds and thereby probably exter¬ 
minated the tree in its natural site. The plants were listed ex¬ 
tensively during this time by nurserymen here and in Europe 
and presumably were distributed extensively. 
During 1881, H. W. Ravenel, a well known botanist of Aiken, 
S. C., made two trips to the Altamaha valley, and a friend of his 
made several other equally fruitless trips in search of the lost 
tree. There are very complete directions for finding the local¬ 
ity, in the publications of William Bartram, and the origina 1 
home of the Franklinia trees has been searched over many 
times. Not a year passes without several botanists or nursery¬ 
men aspiring to the honor of discovering the long lost trees. 
The latest search was made by Dr. Edgar T. Wherry of the bur¬ 
eau of chemistry of the Department of Agriculture, and Harry 
W. Trudell of Philadelphia, last June. All of these recent ex¬ 
plorations, covering a period of more than forty years, have 
been futile. The presumption, therefore, is very strong that 
Franklinia has been eradicated in its native environment, but as 
there is dense brush and timber and difficult swamp in that 
section of Georgia, it is possible that a few specimens may have 
escaped the notice of the searchers. The tree is not very large, 
and except in the blossoming season, when its beautiful flowers 
—which have made it in such demand by nurserymen—would be 
very noticeable, it might pass unobserved. Bartram gave it a. 
maximum height of only twenty-five feet, and the larger of the 
two trees at Chevy Chase is about that high and about five 
inches in diameter. 
The Franklinia tree, it appears, requires an acid soil, and as 
the knowledge of the adaptation of plants to acid and alkaline 
soils was very limited until the last few years most of the trees 
put out by nurserymen died, despite the best of care as formerly 
understood. Only five gardens are known to have k ept them 
alive. There is one tree in Georgetown, one in Hyattsville, Md , 
one or more in the Meehan nursery, Germantown, Pa., and one 
in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Some cuttings were taken this 
year from the Chevy Chase trees and planted in Delaware in 
what is considered an ideal location. The Chevy Chase, George¬ 
town and Hyattsville trees probably all came from the Meehan 
nursery at about the same time. The Chevy Chase trees were 
planted by the Chevy Chase Land Company when that suburb 
was being opened up many years ago. 
According to Dr. Wherry, it will take a party of four or five 
persons about a month to cover every square yard of the locality 
in the Altamaha valley where the Bartrams found the tree. At 
the end of such a systematic search, Dr. Werry says, it would 
be possible authoritatively to assert that the trees had become 
extinct in their home, if none was found. 
The Gordonia, apart from its rarity, is too beautiful a 
thing to he lost without an effort to preserve it. 
In addition to those mentioned in the above account 
there are several growing in the vicinity of Philadelphia 
and about ten years ago, the writer saw quite a nice 
