MEMOIR. XXVll 



it might principally be traced to i Downing's Cottage Resi- 

 dences ' and the i Horticulturist/ " He was naturally elect- 

 ed an honorary member of most of the Horticultural Soci- 

 eties in the country ; and as his interest in rural life was 

 universal, embracing no less the soil and cultivation, than 

 the plant, and flower, and fruit, with the residence of the 

 cultivator, he received the same honor from the Agricultu- 

 ral Associations. 



Meanwhile his studies were unremitting ; and in 1845 

 Wiley & Putnam published in New- York and London 

 "The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America/ 7 a volume of 

 six hundred pages. The duodecimo edition had only lineal 

 drawings. The large octavo was illustrated with finely 

 colored plates, executed in Pans, from drawings made in 

 this country from the original fruits. It is a masterly 

 resume of the results of American experience in the his- 

 tory, character, and growth of fruit, to the date of its pub- 

 lication. The fourteenth edition was published in the year 

 1852. 



It was in May of the year 1846 that I first saw Down- 

 ing. A party was made up under the locusts to cross the 

 river and pass the day at "Highland Gardens," as his place 

 was named. The river at Newburgh is about a mile wide, 

 and is crossed by a quiet country ferry, whence the view 

 downward toward the West Point Highlands, Butter Hill, 

 Sugar-Loaf, Cro' Nest, and Skunnymunk, is as beautiful 

 a river view as can be seen upon a summer day. It was a 

 merry party which crossed, that bright May morning, and 

 broke, with ringing laughter, the silence of the river. 

 Most of us were newly escaped from the city, where we 

 had been blockaded by the winter for many months, and 

 although often tempted by the warm days that came in 

 March, opening the windows on Broadway and ranging 



