The Baltimore County union., 1884-12-13

a Pleasing OkoICn or Mr.. breckenridge.
The December number of The Gardeners
Monthly and Horticultural, published in Phia-
deIphia, contains splendid portrait of Mr.. VIM.
| d. Breckenridge, of Govanstown, Baltimore coun-
ty-a gentleman well and favorably known to
nearly all our our people-accompan by the
following interesting biographical sketch:
"In our efforts to do justice to those who, still
| living, have been prominent authors in Ameri-
| can Horticulture, we meet with many difficulties !;
notify any means the least being the modesty
| which prevents some excellentpersonsf from saying
| anything about themselves. They forget that
| the public has right to know something of those
| who como forward to instruct them. People will
know, and it is much better for the one who alone
Al.nSsss thc facts, to give them himself, than to
| have all sorts of nonsense guessed at about him
| astsr he is gvne.
"In.the case of the gentleman whose portrait
| doeshonor on this occasion to our annual volume,
| we have the author of the Ferns of the Wilkes
| Exploring Expedition and the many years hor-
| ticutural editor of the American Farmer, of Bal
timore; but the effort to get direct information of
anything about him has signally failed. We re-
ceived the portrait from friend, without any
pcion that the use we are making OF it would not
be agreeable and it not until too late to re-
treat that we found could not get the informa-
tion we desired. When, however, we consider the
unblushing efforts of many to get notices from
the press it is not to be wondered that modest
men go to the opposite extreme; and we may say
of this one rs his fellow w-townsman, the great
poet, Burns, said of his own father:
His failings leaned to Virtues side.'
"From such outside source could reach,
we venture to give the following brief account of
this estimable gentleman, without, however,
vouching for its correctness in every particular.
I'VE believe he came to America in somewhere
about his twenty-seventh year, when he entered
into the service of the late Robert Buist of Phila-
delphia. We believe he had been one of the as
sistants to Prof. Otto, in the Botanic Gardens at
Berlin, from whence it is easy to understand how
he may have obtained the critical knowledge of
ferns for which he has long been eminent in this
country. Previous to this though comparatively
young, he was quite distinguished as landscape
) gardener, having laid out the famous gardens of
Count Ebors, in Poland, and was also in charge
5rDr. Neis garden, at Edinburg, where so many
of Tweedies Brazilian plants were raised.-
By the recommendation of his friend Buist, who
was always ready in helping along true merit, he
became one of the naturalists attached to the eX-
ploring expedition of Lieutenant Wilkes. On the
Pacific. they entered California from the north
ward, passing down by Mount Shasta to the Bay
of California, and, on this excursion, discovered
the now famous Darlingtonia or California pitcher
plant and almost by an accident, as it we're
Tho collecting party had orders to get nearer
camp, for fear of Indians. Mr.. Breckenridge,
attracted by an unusual number of varieties, lin
gered till some surprise caused him to run rapidly
towards safety. On the instant of starting he
grabbed something that seemed strange, and with
the handful reached camp, and then found he had
this singular plant. To him committed the
preparation of the ferns of the expedition. On
this he spent three years of hard work. 1t was
published by the Government A small number
of copies had been sent out when the whole of
the balance was destroyed by fire. The owner, in
these days, of copy of this magnificent work, is
among the most envied of scientific book lovers.
On his return from this expedition he married, in
Philadelphia, an estmable lady countrywoman
of his own whom he had well known before leav-
ing the old world and finally settled in Wash
ington, where the seeds and plants collected on
the expedition finally formed what is now the
United States Botanic Garden.
"His love of landscape. gardening, to which
some of the finest work in Washington is indebted,
led him to settle in Baltimore few years before
the rebellion came to head, where he establish
ed nursery and followed his tastes as an improver
of grounds, meeting with wonderful success
Many of the most beautiful of the country seats
in the charming suburbs of the Monumental City
arc indebted for their loveliness to the intelligent
taste of w. D. breckenridge. He is one of those
men who carry sunshine wherever they go, ard
for whom those who love horticulture for its in
tellectual pursuits and the genuine happiness it
brings, offer up their most earnest prayers
ole was born not far from the same spot which
gave to Scotland its greatest poet, Burns, and is
we believe, now in his seventy fourth year. His
long and still continued work as Horticultural
Editor of the American Farmer, outside of his
work on Ferns, justly entities him to foremost
place in list of living horticultural authors"
a-