v.] VAN MONS' INFLUENCE, 147 



the American public by Robert Manning, who received 

 and distributed his new varieties, and who described 

 these novelties in Hovey's "Magazine of Horticulture," 

 and in his own excellent "Book of Fruits," which was 

 published at Salem in 1838. Van Mons' system was 

 first clearly enunciated in this country by the brilliant 

 Andrew Jackson Downing, in the first edition of his 

 "Fruits and Fruit Trees," in 1845; and this outline of 

 the theory has remained unchanged through the many 

 editions and revisions of this work. American horticul- 

 turists now know Van Mons only from this historic 

 record in Downing. In England, Van Mons' influence 

 seems to have been comparatively small, owing largely, 

 no doubt, to the overshadowing effect of the contempo- 

 raneous work of Thomas Andrew Knight, to whom we 

 shall presently recur. Upon the continent, however, his 

 authority was unbounded. Loiseleur-Deslongchamps, 

 himself a great horticultural authority and yet one who 

 did not subscribe to Van Mons' theories, writes of him : 

 We have no fear in saying that Van Mons himself 

 accomplished more than had been accomplished since 

 horticulture began; for there had been no labor, so far 

 as I know, that resembles or even approaches it. Po- 

 mology owes him the greatest obligations. In fact, it is 

 from his time that we have seen good fruits of all sorts, 

 and principally of pears, multiplied in a most extraor- 

 dinary manner; and that whatever reproaches one may 

 make against his system (and I do not fear myself to 

 raise objections to it), it is justice to him, which I am 

 glad to grant, to say that there has never been a man 

 who made known such a large number of new and good 

 fruits as Van Mons did." The praise which was every- 

 where bestowed upon him, and the prodigious labors 



