Meehan, Thomas
nurseryman, journalist, botanist, author, was born March 21, 1826, in England. He has devoted his life to scientific pursuits, and in early life had a love for natural history. He has had charge of a number of botanic gardens and in 1853 published Handbook of American Ornamental Trees. In 1854 he established the Meehan Nursery; and in 1860 founded the Gardener's Monthly, of which he was sole editor for thirty years.
In 1880 he established a publication entitled the Flowers and Ferns of the United States, which was subsequently merged into Meehan's Monthly, which is still published in Philadelphia, Pa. He is botanist of the board of agriculture of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In science he became famous through his study of the relation of sex in plants, credit for which is given him in the Encyclopedia Britannica. His life work is the illustrated Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States, published by Prang and Company in book form, and then as a serial in Meehan's Monthly.