oo much trouble, and yet he had an
intolerance of hypocrisy and cant that was almost violent. He was
steadfast of purpose and there is nothing that shows this better than
his lifelong work in plant breeding and the ruthless manner in which he
rooted out his inferior seedlings as soon as he felt them to be
valueless. His likes and dislikes were strong. Above all, he was modest
and retiring in the extreme. He not only avoided, but shunned publicity.
He avoided the outdoor meetings of the American Rose Society in the
National Rose Test Garden as much from the fear of publicity that we,
his friends, could not refrain from giving him, as for any other reason.
He regretted in his later years that he had given up, during his
editorial career, the little public speaking that he had previously done
and had gotten so out of practice that, with his disposition, he could
not again take it up.

He was an amateur musician with a thorough knowledge of orchestral and
band instruments, harmony, theory, and orchestration but during the last
few years none but intimate frequenters of his home had the privilege
of hearing him, although until within the last two or three years he
often played the violin.

In 1918 he was awarded the George Robert White Medal of Honor for
eminent services in horticulture by the Massachusetts Horticultural
Society, probably the greatest honor that can come to a horticulturist
in this country. He had also been awarded three medals for the rose Miss
Mary Wallace, a gold medal by the American Rose Society, a gold medal by
the City of Portland, Oregon, and a silver trophy by the Portland
(Oregon) Rose Society. He was associate editor of the magazine
"Genetics" at the time of his death.

* * * * *

Although he was an honorary member of the association I think very few
of us knew that he had such varied activities in his life as this little
biography tells us he had. The death of Dr. Van Fleet has been a great
loss to American horticulture and nut growing.

Also during the year Colonel Sober has died. Colonel Sober, as you know,
was a man who had made a very great success of growing the Paragon
chestnut. His was the first commercial success in nut growing in the
North. Then the blight came along and wiped out his industry. The
Colonel was loath to admit for a long time that he had the blight or
that his trees were not immune and that his nut growing was going to be
a failure on a