RAND, Edward Sprague, merchant, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1782; died there in November, 1863. He was educated at the Dummer academy in his native place, and afterward entered his father's store as a clerk. When he was eighteen years of age he went to Europe as a supercargo, and before he was twenty-one he was established as a commission merchant in Amsterdam. Leaving that city, he made voyages to the Canary islands, Havana, and elsewhere, and after revisiting this country he went to Russia. On his return from St. Petersburg in 1810 he was shipwrecked on the Naze, Norway. After the treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1815 he was for many years engaged in the East India trade. In 1821, with others, he purchased a woollen-mill at Salisbury, now known as the Salisbury mills, of which he was for a long time president. In 1827 he withdrew from commerce and engaged in manufacturing. From 1827 till 1835 he was president of the Mechanics' bank, Newburyport, and he sat for several years in each branch of the legislature. He was often a delegate to the general convention of the Protestant Episcopal church.--His grandson, Edward Sprague, floriculturist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, 20 October, 1834, was graduated at Harvard in 1855, and at the law-school in 1857, and subsequently formed a partnership with his father. He devotes much time to floriculture and literature at his home at Dedham, Massachusetts He assisted in Flint's edition of "Harris on Insects Injurious to Vegetation" (Boston, 1862), edited the floral department of "The Homestead," and partially prepared a new edition of Dr. Jacob Bigelow's "Florula Bostoniensis." He has published "Life Memoirs, and other Poems "(Boston, 1859) ; "Flowers for the Parlor and Garden" (1863) ; "Garden Flowers" (1866) ; "Bulbs" (1866) ; "Seventy-five Popular Flowers, and How to cultivate Them" (1870) ; "The Rhodedendron and American Plants" (1871) : " Window Gardener" (1872); and "Complete Manual of Orchid Culture" (New York, 1876).