Chauncey Delos Beadle (August5, 18661950) was a Canadian-born botanist and horticulturist active in the southern United States. He was educated in horticulture at

Ontario Agricultural College The Ontario Agricultural College (OAC) originated at the agricultural laboratories of the Toronto Normal School, and was officially founded in 1874 as an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto. Since 1964, it has become affil ...

(1884) and

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

(1889). In 1890 the landscape architect

Frederick Law Olmsted Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, Social criticism, social critic, and public administrator. He is considered to be the father of landscape architecture in the U ...

hired him to oversee the nursery at

Biltmore Estate Biltmore Estate is a historic house museum and tourist attraction in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. The main residence, Biltmore House (or Biltmore Mansion), is a Châteauesque-style mansion built for George Washington Vanderbilt II ...

in Asheville,

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

on a temporary basis. Olmsted had been impressed by Beadle's "encyclopedic" knowledge of plants. Beadle ended up working at Biltmore for more than 60 years, until his death in 1950. He is best known for his horticultural work with

azalea Azaleas ( ) are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Rhododendron sect. Tsutsusi, Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and ''Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate ...

s, and described several species and varieties of plants from the southern Appalachian region. He and three friends, including his "driver and companion" Sylvester Owens, styled themselves the ''Azalea Hunters''. The group traveled over the eastern United States for a period of fifteen years, studying and collecting native plants. In 1940 Beadle donated his entire collection of 3,000 plants to Biltmore Estates. He also designed the landscape at

Gunston Hall Gunston Hall is an 18th-century Georgian architecture, Georgian Plantation house in the Southern United States, mansion near the Potomac River in Mason Neck, Virginia, Mason Neck, Virginia, United States. Built between 1755 and 1759 by George ...

Biltmore Forest, North Carolina Biltmore Forest is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,409 as of 2020 United States census, 2020. It is part of the Asheville, North Carolina, Asheville Asheville metropol ...

and Intheoaks at

Black Mountain, North Carolina Black Mountain is a town in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,426 at the 2020 United States census. It is part of the Asheville metropolitan area. The town is named for the old train stop at the Black Mountai ...

. Beadle wrote scientific papers describing new species and varieties of North American plants, for example, papers in the journal ''Biltmore Botanical Studies'' and his major work on the genus ''

Crataegus ''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornacea ...

'' (hawthorns) in

John Kunkel Small John Kunkel Small (January 31, 1869 – January 20, 1938) was an American botanist. He studied plants in the southeastern United States and wrote a book about the deterioration of habitats in Florida. Early life and education Small was born on ...

's 1903 book ''Flora of the Southeastern United States''. (See, for example, to the scientific description of Florida Mock-orange, ''Philadelphus floridus''.) Two of his important collaborators at Biltmore were Charles Lawrence Boynton and Frank Ellis Boynton. In popular literature, Beadle wrote the Introduction for Alice Lounsberry's ''Southern Wildflowers and Trees''.

References

External links

* * * * *
Denizens of Biltmore
��has photo of Beadle, accessed 9 January 2008 * Alice Lounsberry (1901). ''Southern Wild Flowers and Trees'' (foreword by Chauncey Beadle). New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. * Rachel Carley (1994). ''A Guide to Biltmore Estate.'' Asheville, North Carolina: The Biltmore Company. . 116 pages. * View works b
Chauncey Beadle
at

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as a worldwide consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working ...

. Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences alumni 1866 births 1950 deaths People from St. Catharines 19th-century American botanists 19th-century Canadian botanists 20th-century American botanists 20th-century Canadian botanists Canadian emigrants to the United States {{US-botanist-stub