"A collection of two hundred specimens of Japanese dwarfed and trained plants have been placed on exhibition in San Francisco by a gentleman who has spent five years in the engineering service of the Government.  The trees and plants are old, some as old as a hundred and fifty years.  The plants are in the shape of living things and in imitation of things of art, representing, among other things, botanical boats, ships, tea houses, cranes, frogs, rabbits, etc.  Several of the plants are in the shape of the old fashioned American Revolutionary cocked hat.  The collection is one of the largest ever made."  1

1     Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 7, 1878, pg. 2.  Who was the gentleman with five years of engineering service in, presumably, the U.S. Government?  What became of the plants?  How many were actual bonsai vs. topiaries?