# William Saunders (botanist)

William Saunders (December 7, 1822 – September 11, 1900) was a horticulturist, landscape designer, and nurseryman. He was one of the first landscape architects employed by the federal government, spending thirty-eight years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was also a founder of the National Grange or Patrons of Husbandry. During his career, Saunders designed the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, planned and developed the Washington, D.C., park system, introduced numerous new plant species to the United States, and authored many articles on horticulture.

## Early life

William Saunders was born on December 7, 1822, in St. Andrews, Scotland. In 1834, he enrolled at Madras College in St. Andrews, where he developed an interest in horticulture and landscape gardening. He studied horticulture at the University of Edinburgh and later received practical training at Kew Gardens. He also worked as an apprentice gardener on several large estates in London. Saunders married Martha Mildwaters in 1848 and emigrated to the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1857.
Saunders initially worked as a gardener on the estate of William Bostwick in New Haven, Connecticut. In the 1850s, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was employed on the estate of Johns Hopkins. In addition to managing the estate farm, Saunders designed landscape features, including large lakes and various flower gardens.
During this time, Saunders began writing articles on horticultural topics, which were published in journals such as The Horticulturalist, Hovey's Magazine of Horticulture, The Farmer and Gardener, and The Philadelphia Florist. Many of his contributions provided practical advice on propagating fruit trees and grapevines.
In 1854, Saunders partnered with horticulturalist Thomas Meehan, whom he had met while working together at Kew Gardens. Together, they established a nursery and collaborated on several public park projects, cemeteries, and residential site plans. Saunders' cemetery designs included Rose Hill Cemetery in Chicago and Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois. He also developed plans for cemeteries in Perth Amboy, Rahway, New Jersey, and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

## Department of Agriculture

In 1862, Saunders was hired as the superintendent of the experimental gardens at the newly created Department of Agriculture, where he worked for the rest of his life. At the time, the organization was called the Bureau of Agriculture and did not achieve cabinet status until 1889. During his thirty-eight-year career, Saunders made significant contributions to landscape design and horticulture.

### Landscape design

In 1863, Saunders was selected by a committee of Union governors to design the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg. Saunders laid out the cemetery on a radial plan centered around a central monument, grouping the Union dead by state. The graves were marked with simple, rectangular slabs of gray granite inscribed with the name, rank, and company of each soldier. He explained that this repetition of "objects in themselves simple and commonplace" was intended to evoke a sense of "solemnity." Saunders framed the site with extensive plantings, using uncommon varieties of trees and shrubs, many of which he had recently introduced to America. This combination of simplicity and extensive green landscaping was a novel approach to cemetery design, unprecedented in Europe or the United States.
Before Lincoln left for Gettysburg to deliver his famous address, he met with Saunders to review the cemetery design. Saunders later wrote, "He [Lincoln] was much pleased with the method of the graves, saying it differed from the ordinary cemetery, and after I had explained the reasons, said it was an admirable and befitting arrangement."
In 1865, after Lincoln's assassination, Saunders was asked to design the landscape for a Lincoln monument at Oak Ridge Cemetery, the same cemetery he had originally planned in 1861. His design featured large open areas of lawn and irregular groupings of non-native trees, including magnolias, arborvitae, and mock orange.
Saunders also designed the landscaping for the west facade of the Capitol and other significant locations in the federal capital. As president of the Washington Parking Commission, he developed city parks and implemented an ambitious program of planting street trees. He oversaw the planting of 80,000 trees, earning the city its reputation as the "City of Trees."

### Horticulture

Saunders was appointed head of the newly created United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Experimental Gardens in 1862 and remained in the position until his death in 1900. He defined the mission of the organization and established its operating guidelines in his "Catalogue of the Plants, Bulbs, Tubers, Etc., for Distribution from the U.S. Propagating Garden with a Report on the Objectives and Aims of the Garden" (1862). This was the USDA's first publication.
His guidelines called for the USDA to procure new and better plants for the country and "ascertain, by experiment, the influences of varied culture" and "investigate more thoroughly the various maladies and diseases of plants and the insects that destroy them."
For example, between 1865 and 1867, the USDA Experimental Garden evaluated more than 120 wheats, 167 ryes, 230 melon varieties, 70 peas, 50 grass species for hay production, and over 500 strawberries, grapes, apples, and pears. The results of this work were published and made available to farmers.
Using this experimental approach, Saunders introduced hundreds of economically important plants, including the Japanese persimmon, the Eucalyptus globulus tree, the Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), the camphor tree, one of the first magnolia trees in Washington, D.C., and many others. About 300 varieties of winter-hardy apples from Russia were evaluated and introduced into the U.S., significantly improving apple production in the Northeast. In 1866, Tappahannock wheat was identified in the evaluation program as a superior variety, noted for its high yields, early maturity, disease resistance, and flour quality. The New York Times wrote on April 26, 1873, that for the "wheat crop in 1862... the average yield per acre was 12.1 bushels. With Tappahannock wheat distributed by the department, the average yield per acre was twenty-five bushels."
The navel orange was Saunders' most acclaimed plant introduction. In 1871, he received a dozen young orange trees from Bahia, Brazil. The fruit was described as large, sweet, and seedless. Saunders presented two of the trees to an old friend, Eliza Tibbets, who moved to Riverside, California. The trees thrived in the California climate, and orchards of this new citrus variety became widespread in Southern California. According to the 1937 "USDA Yearbook of Agriculture," the introduction of what became known as the Washington navel orange was considered "one of the outstanding events in the economic and social development of California."

### Grange

Saunders supported the interests and economic welfare of American farmers. In 1867, he and six colleagues founded the National Grange, an organization dedicated to promoting the economic and political well-being of agriculture and rural communities. Saunders authored the Grange's constitution and was elected its first Master, a position he held for six years. During his tenure, Saunders was a strong advocate for women's participation and representation in the organization.

## Works

During his lifetime, Saunders published hundreds of articles on horticulture, agriculture, and landscape design. Some of his notable works include:
* Journal, 1898. United States Department of Agriculture Library, Washington, D.C. This unpublished handwritten journal by Saunders is the most detailed primary source dealing with Saunders' career with the Department of Agriculture, the background of the Soldiers' National Cemetery, and his design ideas for Washington, D.C.
* "Landscape Gardening." The Report of the Commission of Agriculture for the Year 1869. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. An important source concerning Saunders' understanding of the history and nature of landscape gardening.
* "Landscape Decorative and Economic Gardening." In City Homes, Country Houses and Church Architecture or the American Builders' Journal, by Samuel Sloan. Philadelphia, PA: Claxton, Remsen, and Haffelfinger; 1871. In this series, Saunders reaffirms many of the ideas expressed in "Landscape Gardening" and develops some of them further.
* "Remarks on the Design for the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania." Revised Report Made to the Legislature of Pennsylvania Relative to the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Harrisburg, PA: Singerly and Myers, State Printers. This is the definitive statement of Saunders' design concept for his most important cemetery commission.
* Saunders, William (1855). "Evergreen Shrubs". The Horticulturist. Vol. V. Philadelphia: Robert Pearsall Smith. pp. 162–166. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1855). "Planting Shrubberies". The Horticulturist. Vol. V. Philadelphia: Robert Pearsall Smith. pp. 300–302. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1855). "Construction of Roads and Walks". The Horticulturist. Vol. V. Philadelphia: Robert Pearsall Smith. pp. 363–366. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1855). "Designs for Improving Country Residences, No. 1". The Horticulturist. Vol. V. Philadelphia: Robert Pearsall Smith. pp. 403–405. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1855). "When and How to Plant Trees". The Horticulturist. Vol. V. Philadelphia: Robert Pearsall Smith. pp. 495–498. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1856). "Designs for Improving Country Residences, No. 2". The Horticulturist. pp. 321–323.
* Saunders, William (1858). "Construction of Glass Houses". The Horticulturist. Vol. VIII. New York: C. M. Saxton. pp. 128–130. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1858). "Plan for Hunting Park Between the Built Part of Philadelphia and Germantown". The Horticulturist. Vol. VIII. New York: C. M. Saxton. pp. 460–464. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1859). "Graperies and Grape Growing". The Horticulturist. Vol. XIV. New York: C. M. Saxton, Barker & Co. pp. 418–422. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.
* Saunders, William (1859). "Fruit Trees in Ornamental Plantations and Lawns". The Horticulturist. Vol. XIV. New York: C. M. Saxton, Barker & Co. pp. 443–446. Retrieved July 5, 2023 – via HathiTrust.