exceedingly sweet, juicy, rich, and vinous, and delightfully aromatic. In pure, 

 high, vinous flavor, it greatly surpasses the Catawba, in its best state, at Cincin- 

 nati, and ripens two degrees of latitude further north than the Isabella. Although 

 it ripens early, it is not injured by hanging late ou the vines, and severe frosts 

 destroy none of its vinous life or aroma. C. "W. Gr. 



THE REAL MONUMENT TO DOWNING. 



BY ONE OP HIS ADMIRERS. 



Mr. Editor : I was greatly interested to see the representation of the monu- 

 ment erected in the grounds of the Smithsonian Institute, in your last volume, 

 and though I should, with you, have greatly preferred that it should have been 

 placed over his grave, I too, as one of the interested, acquiesce. Perhaps you 

 and your readers will be pleased to see the figure of the real monument erected to 

 his memory. It is at Newburg, in the church ground, where I have frequently 

 visited it with interest ; and I consider it a most perfect memento in all respects, 

 characterized by the best taste, such as he knew so well how to inculcate in what- 

 ever he undertook. 



MONUMENT TO THE LATE A. J. DOWNING, IN THE CHtJKCH CEMETERY AT NEWBITEG, N. T. 



The inscription is — 



" This mortal must put on immortality." 

 " Be not dismayed, I am thy God." 



Bitter was the day, and bitterer still was the blast, that whirled around me, as 

 with shivering hands I scraped away the snow which had buried in its folds, as 

 with a winding sheet, the above inscriptions ; and yet cheerless and desolate as 

 were the feelings inspired by the scene around me, they did not compare with the 

 deep sorrow with which I well remember I saw entombed here all that was mortal 

 of our lamented friend. I shall not soon forget that summer day, when still 

 stunned by the horror of his sudden death, I witnessed that solemn and impressive 

 service amidst those trees and flowers that he had planted and loved so well, and 

 which seemed, in their abundant gratitude, to bloom more sweetly for his hands 

 than for any other. His death was so sudden, and his burial followed so hard 

 upon it, that one could scarcely realize that even here, into that blooming para- 

 dise, the destroyer had come. 



It seemed to have been the desire of his friends that the last known and seen 



