John Adams and Mary Moody (Clark) Nash, whose ancestry is traced back to Pilgrim William Brewster, who came from England on the Mayflower in 1620.

[2] Scotto, after many years as a businessman in various capacities, pursued an interest in nature by building greenhouses and growing roses.

Starting about 1888, he made the acquaintance of botanist and collector Dr. George Thurber, editor of the American Agriculturalist, who specialized in grasses.

[1] That same year, the NYBG was invited by Sir William Thiselton-Dyer, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England, to visit and acquire plant species to transplant for their initial collections.

In 1902, Nash made a second European trip for further study and to exchange plants with several other institutions, including a return visit to Kew, and others in Edinburgh, Cambridge, Brussels, Paris, and Utrecht.

[1] Nash is the author of over 180 publications on the topic of botany and horticulture, including his annual reports, published yearly in the NYBG Bulletin.

[1] His works on diverse botanical topics include: Costa Rican Orchids (1906), North American Flora (1909), A revision of the family Fouquieriaceae (1906?