Notes and Gleanings. 357 



" The Fruits and Fruit-Trees of America," by A. J. Downing. Second 

 revision and correction, by Charles Downing. 



We well remember the eagerness, when it was understood that A. J. Downing 

 was preparing a work on fruits, with which its publication was looked forward 

 to. Its appearance was a noted event in the pomological world ; and the book 

 at once took the place, which, notwithstanding the publication of other treatises, 

 each possessing their special excellences, it has ever since maintained, — of the 

 standard authority on fruits. The appearance of the stout octavo into which 

 the work has expanded in the quarter of a century that has elapsed since the 

 publication of the first edition, we think, may well constitute another pomologi- 

 cal epoch. We cannot but admire the courage which addresses itself to the 

 gigantic task of preparing any thing like a complete view of the fruits of Amer- 

 ica ; and we cannot but think, that, had it not been for the desire to erect a wor- 

 thy monument to his lamented brother, Mr. Downing would hardly have under- 

 taken it. 



A comparison of a few points in the first and last editions of this work will 

 show the advance which has been made since 1845, when the first edition was 

 published. The duodecimo of six hundred pages has grown to an octavo of 

 eleven hundred pages, of which the index occupies nearly a hundred : and, in- 

 stead of less than two hundred varieties of apples, we have eighteen hundred 

 and foxty kinds described, including thirty-seven Siberian crabs and apples, the 

 cultivation of which has sprung into importance within a few years, with a select 

 list of ninety-seven kinds ; the whole filling three hundred and fifty pages, — suffi- 

 cient alone to make a respectable work. The pears iiave increased from two 

 hundred and thirty to a thousand, with a select list of seventy-three ; cherries, 

 from seventy-seven to a hundred and ninety-two ; peaches, from seventy-nine to 

 two hundred and twenty-nine ; plums, from ninety-seven to two hundred and 

 eighty-seven ; apricots, from sixteen to forty-five ; currants, from ten to twentv- 

 seven ; nectarines, from eighteen to thirty-one ; raspberries, from fourteen to 

 eighty-seven ; strawberries, from thirty-six to two hundred and fifty-two ; foreign 

 grapes, from thirty-five to forty-two ; while native grapes, the improvement of 

 which may indeed be said to have commenced within the last fifteen years, have 

 increased from twelve to a hundred and forty-five varieties. Of native goose- 

 berries, which have almost entirely taken the place of the English, we have six 

 kinds, not one of which was known to the first edition : and of blackberries, 

 which were then unknown as a cultivated fruit, we have twenty-five kinds against 

 the two wild species described in 1845 5 ^'^•^ this notwithstanding many of the 

 old, superseded varieties of the first edition have been dropped. The whole 

 number of varieties described in the first edition was a little over nine hundred ; 

 in the present, more than four thousand and three hundred. In 1845, ^I""- Down- 

 ing gave a list of thirty-five persons who had assisted him in the preparation of 

 his work: in this revision, his brother acknowledges the aid of more than two 

 hundred. 



A comparison of the first revision of 1857 with the editions of 1845 ^.nd the 

 present shows that this advance in pomology has been much more rapid in the 

 last twelve years than in the twelve preceding : so that we may well ask, What 



