THOMAs HOGG, Sen'r, or Torkville, N. Y.

Another of the pioneers of American Horticulture is gone. For more than thirty years Mr. Hogg occupied a prominent place among the professional florists and nurserymen of the United States, and it would not be right were we to allow his death to pass unnoticed in this journal. We have deferred the announcement of his decease, for the purpose of accompanying it with a brief sketch of his useful, well-spent life.

The culture of exotic plants, and indeed all branches of horticulture, were at a low ebb when his labors in New York commenced; and he has contributed largely to their advancement He was a man of superior intelligence, a good botanist, and a genuine, hearty lover of plants for their own sake. As a propagator of plants, he had no superior, to our knowledge, in this country. He was continually on the watch for the really fine new plants; and thus he always kept his collection fully up with the times.

He was a remarkably modest, unassuming man, and of an eminently charitable and generous turn of mind. In the frequent interviews we have had with him, during the last eighteen years, we do not remember hearing him utter a single vain, boastful expression, nor one word of an unkind, censorious nature, concerning any human being. He was ever to be found among his plants - interested, cheerful, and happy -ready to show and point out the qualities of his last new plant.

In his dealings with the trade, and with the community at large, Mr. Hogg has ever been regarded as one of the most upright and reliable men. During his long career, his name has never been connected with any of the clap-trap novelties with which the horticultural world has ever been so frequently duped. He possessed sound judgment and great caution, which, added to his spotless integrity, inspired that confidence which was so justly and so generally reposed in him.

Mr. Hogg was highly respected in Europe, as well as at home - no man connected with the trade more so. In our travels, we found him everywhere inquired about in the kindest manner, and spoken of in the most flattering terms. A large number of the gardeners who came to this country from Europe, were recommended to him for advice and assistance; and these he was ever ready and willing to extend. Hundreds of the men whom he has befriended are now scattered over this country, and will lament his decease.

Mr. Hogg's life was not one of much adventure or vicissitude. He was born at Polwarth, Berwickshire, Scotland, on the 20th of February, 1778, and was therefore aged somewhat over 76 years and 7 months at the time of his death, the 11th of October last His first occupation in life was taking charge of the men in his father's employ, who at that time was engaged as a contractor in making a macadamized road through the Cheviot hills, supposed to be the first made in Scotland. Here he became acquainted with Mr. Small, the inventor of the iron plow, who was then a country wheelwright, and repaired his father's carts. He has often been hoard to speak of sleeping in his house, and of his recollecting the first plows which Small made.

Mr. Hogg afterwards went to Liverpool, and was apprenticed as a printer, working on the Liverpool Mercury. After some months, this paper was suspended on account of its editor having published a severe article reflecting on the government, for having permitted a British soldier to be flogged under a guard of Hessians. His indentures being cancelled, he continued to work at his trade for some time longer, in another office.

It was during his apprenticeship in Liverpool that he first showed the remarkable love for plants which so distinguished him through after life, every leisure opportunity being devoted to botanical excursions to the surrounding country, and his first efforts at cultivation being the growing of plants in pots upon the beams of the loft in which the printing presses were placed.

From Liverpool he went to Edinburgh, where he obtained employment at his trade for a short time; but finally, on account of the tastes he had acquired for horticultural pursuits, he abandoned it, and went to the Messrs. Dicksons' nurseries, at Hawick, not far from where he was born, to obtain a knowledge of his new profession. When about twenty-one or twenty-two years of age, he went to Raleigh, in Essex, England, to take charge of a farm belonging to a Mr. Alex. Hume, his uncle, who was purser to Capt Cook on board the Endeavor, and accompanied him in his celebrated voyage around the world. Here, in consequence of the unhealthy location, it being in the fen country of Essex, he was taken ill with a bilious fever, which rendered it necessary for him to remove elsewhere. He therefore went to London, and obtained employment in the celebrated nurseries of Messrs. Lee & Kennedy, at Hammersmith, whence he was sent to a situation near Reading in Berkshire, and he afterward went to a situation in Herefordshire; but as neither of these were what are technically called plant places, he, after an absence of two or three years, returned to Messrs. Lee & Kennedy, who soon obtained for him the charge of the green-houses belonging to Wm. Kent, Esq., of London. This gentleman was one of the merchant princes of England, an enthusiastic lover of plants, employing his wealth and using the influence of his position in promoting horticultural taste.

Having a very extensive correspondence abroad, he was enabled to obtain many new and valuable plants. In this situation Mr. Hogg had every opportunity of gratifying his love for plants, and of becoming acquainted with the greatest rarities then known to the botanical world.

The reputation which Mr. Kent's establishment had of being by far the choicest and largest collection of rare plants then existing in England, as a private collection, brought Mr. Hogg in communication with all the most noted horticulturists and collectors of the day; and the privilege which he had of exchanging duplicates of any of his own rarities for those of others, and thus enlarging his own collection, enabled him to attain to that great practical knowledge of plants for which he was so well known. It was here that he became intimate with McNab, of Edinburgh; Murray, of Glasgow; Shepherd, of Liverpool; Anderson, of Chelsea; Aiton, of Kew; Pursh, Goldib, Don, and other collectors of note. The extensive knowledge of plants which he thus obtained, procured his election as a member of the Linnaean Society and the London Horticultural Society. Of the latter society he was one of the earliest members.