52, Arnoldia 78/5-6 « October 2021 
to build the collection, continuing the family’s 
international trade in seeds and plants. 
One can only imagine Meehan’s fascination 
with this plant collection, undoubtedly one of 
the best in the United States at the time and 
one primed for study by a keen student of hor- 
ticulture. While he was there, Meehan began 
collecting notes for his first book, The Ameri- 
can Handbook of Ornamental Trees. He fitted 
out a place to write in the woodshed that John 
Bartram had used for potting and packing seed.® 
It is difficult to imagine what Meehan’s expe- 
rience was like in that woodshed, but from a 
photograph that he published of the structure 
years later, it appears analogous to an artist’s 
garret, cramped quarters but perhaps a place 
with little to distract the author from his work. 
In the garden, what would Mechan have experi- 
enced? From the Handbook, published in 1853, 
we get a sense of the diversity and size of the 
trees growing there. Fittingly, many of the trees 
that Meehan described would have been potted 
up in the very same building where he collected 
his observations as much as a century later. 
Meehan first intended for the book to list 
the trees growing at Bartram’s Garden, but it 
evolved into a more comprehensive project 
that included all the trees (and some shrubs) 
cultivated throughout the Delaware Valley 
and presumably across the Northeast. In 1852, 
while he worked on the project, Meehan left 
Bartram’s Garden to work for Caleb Cope, the 
former president of the Pennsylvania Horticul- 
tural Society. Cope’s Springbrook estate was 
located along the Delaware River in far north- 
ern Philadelphia.? In presenting his authorial 
credentials, Meehan acknowledged his time at 
Kew and several “superior establishments” in 
Philadelphia. He added that “nothing has been 
admitted into the body of the work that has not 
been the result of the personal experience of the 
author. No tree is described as being in cultiva- 
tion which the author has not himself seen.” 
Meehan’s horticultural ambitions are evident 
from his ability to visit and bear first-hand wit- 
ness to so many trees in such a short period. 
The pace is even more remarkable given that 
travel on unimproved roads among the sur- 
rounding counties was challenging. Yet, Mee- 
han’s inveterate field research not only allowed 
him to understand the regional horticultural 
diversity but also brought him into the gardens 
of prominent botanical collectors. The Hand- 
book documented the gardens of the early Phil- 
adelphia Quaker botanists and described the 
transition from the local horticultural heritage 
to a broader palette of plants from Europe and 
Asia. Here we see Meehan serving as a bridge 
between two eras: from the horticultural legacy 
of the late 1700s and early 1800s to the broader 
and more outward-looking horticultural devel- 
opments of the late nineteenth century. 
The Handbook provides glimpses into the 
most renowned collections of the time. Of 
course, Meehan describes numerous notable 
trees at Bartram’s Garden, including an old 
Franklin tree (Franklinia alatamaha, listed as 
Gordonia pubescens), which was likely one of 
William Bartram’s original eighteenth-century 
collections. Meehan also lists massive speci- 
mens like a ninety-three-foot-tall Kentucky 
coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) and a fifteen- 
foot-tall cornelian-cherry (Cornus mas), a Euro- 
pean species that would have been a collector’s 
tree at that time. Meehan also describes plants 
at the home of Humphry Marshall—author 
of Arbustrum Americanum: The American 
Grove, who lived near West Chester—and the 
now-forgotten arboretum of John Evans, which 
was one of the most significant collections of 
its time, located in Radnor, about fifteen miles 
west of Philadelphia. 
The best extant example of a nineteenth- 
century arboretum that Meehan visited is that 
of the Peirce family, which now comprises the 
core of Peirce’s Park at Longwood Gardens. The 
Peirces began their collection in the early 1800s, 
creating one of the finest regional arboreta by 
building on their forerunners, the Bartrams and 
Marshalls. The collection became renowned for 
its scale and diversity. Meehan describes several 
notable trees at this location, some of which 
remain today. For example, in his description 
of eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), Meehan 
mentioned that he had “seen fine specimens of 
this in Mr. Pierce’s [sic] fine avenue.” Similarly, 
he listed a cucumbertree magnolia (Magnolia 
acuminata var. subcordata, then M. cordata) 
with a four-foot circumference in Peirce’s arbo- 
retum. In recent years, this tree was named as 
the cultivar ‘Peirce’s Park’, and although the 
original tree was lost during a storm in April 
