376 CHARLES DOWNING. [March 



In all cases where it is desired to get up an undergrowth, it is 

 most imiDortant to prepare the ground thoroughly before jjlanting 

 it. If it is full of roots, holes should be dug, at least a foot in 

 depth, and of sufficient diameter, spreading the exhausted soil taken 

 out over the surface, and filling the holes with fresh, rich soil, in 

 which the plants may get a good start. Top-dressing with fresh 

 soil, well-rotted manure, or compost, is also very effective ; and if 

 dry weather follows on the planting, watering the plants is neces- 

 sary till they get a hold of the ground, and are growing freely. 



D. 



CHARLES DOWNING. 



THIS veteran American pomologist died on the IStli ult., in his 

 eighty-third year. He never recovered from a severe injury 

 which he sustained two years ago in New York city, being knocked 

 down and run over by a horse car. The last surviving of two brothers 

 who have had perhaps the most prominent influence in developing 

 American horticulture, his genius tended more to fruit culture, while 

 the other, throughout a very brief career, led the van in landscape 

 gardening. 



Our contemporary. Median's American Gardener's Monthly, thus 

 estimates his work and loss : — " Who will now tell us of what we 

 want to know of fruits ? Who will give the many hours in naming 

 and identifying baskets of fruit from all parts of tlie world as a 

 labour of love ? " Another instance of how horticulture makes a 

 man unselfish, Downing appears to have gained from his vast literary 

 labours little more than a few copies to give to his friends. The 

 Fruits and Frii it Trees of America, begun by his brother, was com- 

 pleted by himself 



The Pltrity of Seeds. — A deputation to the Lord-Lieutenant 

 of Ireland, as well as se^'eral speakers at the annual meeting of 

 the Scottish Seed and Nursery Trade Association, all pointed to 

 the need of experimental stations where the purity and germinative 

 power of seeds could be ascertained. If, as was remarked by Mr. 

 Methven, the chairman of the association, seed adulteration is now 

 virtually a thing of the jjast, let us hope when the nursery trade 

 readjusts itself in the better coming time, that a higher forestral 

 progress will result through tlie work of such stations. The 

 association may congratulate itself on the work of a very successful 

 year. 



