154 American HortiGultural Society. 



passage: 'But he, following the native tendencies of his mind, preferred tore- 

 main with his elder brother * * whose accuracy and practical skill in horticul- 

 ture gave special prominence to the same traits in the deceased, and with whom he 

 might study the theory, and perfect himself in the practice of his favorite art.' 



"At that time the versatile and brilliant A. J. Downing was sixteen years of age, 

 and the solid, earnest delver after horticultural truths, whom we now lament, was 

 a mature man of thirty. At this very early date in our pomological history, 

 Charles Downing was a corresponding member of the leading horticultural socie- 

 ties of Europe, and was a quiet leader in advancing horticulture on the Hudson 

 and in the New England States. During the next twenty-one years, the public 

 hears little of the modest, retiring Charles Downing, while his talented and versa- 

 tile pupil astonished the conservatives of the old world with his ' Landscape 

 Gardening,' at the early age of twenty-six. Then came his 'Cottage Residences ; ' 

 then the volumes of ' Downing's Horticulturist;' and in 1845, when but thirty 

 years of age, appeared the ' Fruits and Fruit Trees of America.' 



"All these works, of which Americans are justly proud, show the ' methodic, 

 sometimes abrupt, but always versatile and flowery ' style of the younger brother, 

 but the thousands of European and American correspondents of Mr. Downing of the 

 past half century need not be told that Charles was the great laborer of the age in 

 the field of untangling the confusing nomenclature of the fruits of the temperate 

 zones. Nor need they be told that since the untimely death of the younger brother^ 

 the quiet, retiring, silent parser, has issued several editions of his brother's great 

 work, with intervening publications in Appendix form. 



" For over a half century his modest statements of the facts pertaining to the 

 fruits, and the home surroundings, have been eagerly read in every prominent in- 

 dustrial publication. He has also been first and foremost in every movement for 

 the advancement of agriculture in its many divisions. As with the sunshine, or 

 the air we breathe, the quiet work of Mr. Downing has been an acknowledged 

 blessing we have taken as the established order since most of us were children. He 

 now rests quietly in the sepulchre of his fathers, on the banks of the river he knew 

 so well as a boy. We shall miss his sage advice and counsel, and the real value 

 of his lifework will grow as the years go on. 



" It will specially gratify all horticulturists of the West to learn that the valua- 

 ble horticultural library of Charles Downing, including most of the rare works 

 published by subscription in Europe and America, for the past sixty years, has 

 been willed, as we learn, to the Horticultural Department of the Iowa Agricultural 

 College, and his many volumes of posthumous papers have been bequeathed to 

 Prof. J. L. Budd, who has charge of this department in that institution. This be- 

 quest is characteristic of the man. It recognizes the idea that the College is trying 

 to do advance work in its industrial department, certainly in the pomological 

 field. It is not unlikely that Mr. Downing took into account the fact that this 

 Institution, and the State, are located very near the center of our broad country, 

 and thus fittingly become the depository of the treasures that were begun to be 

 collected at a time when the Hudson was almost on the western borders of horti- 

 cultural advancement."— Prame Farmer. 



