downing's letters 



they belonged had been de- 

 sti'oj^ed. Mr. Knight gives 

 some curious particulars in 

 his Physiological Papers, 

 pp. 83, 325. 



It has been confidently 

 asserted that roots are the 

 organs by which plants rid 

 themselves of the secreted 

 matter which is either su- 

 perfluous or deleterious to 

 them. Correct experiments, 

 however, have shown that 

 such results are only ob- 

 tained when roots are lacer- 

 ated, and that they have no 

 greater power of excreting 

 matter than other parts of a 

 plant. The theory of root- 

 excretions was sustained by 

 Liebig, but it is now aban- 

 doned. — Pof. Lindley. 



Fig. 3. 



DOWNING'S FAMILIAR NOTES AND LETTERS. 



No. II. 



A PUBLICATION in two quarto volumes of our own, entitled American Literary 

 and Historical Curiosities, had attracted Downing's attention, and he immediately 

 commenced with considerable success the new pursuit of autograph collector; 

 the next and the following letters contain playful allusions to this : — 



HiGHLAin) Gaeden, June 15, 1847. 



My Dear Friend : I am greatly your debtor for the two fine volumes you have 

 sent me. That on Medical Botany"^ is very respectable. The Antiquities is quite 

 a gem in its way, and has interested me a great deal — indeed, so much so that I 

 have got about putting together an autograph collection of my own, as I find, on 

 collecting the materials, that I have a very respectable stock to begin with. 



Indeed, / se7id you in the true collector's style, some of my duplicates — em- 

 bracing autograph letters of Jeremy Bentham, Major Cartwright, General Mina, 



* Carson's Medical Botany, wliicli was published in Philadelphia. — Ed. 



Vol. YI.— Feb. 1856. 



