THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, July 19, 1859. 
231 
dissection; for the shape, carriage, and plumage of botli are 
similar. They both sing ; but the song of the cock is stouter 
than the hen’s, and he has a greater variety of notes. The “water- 
bubble” lias deeper intonations, and the “wood-rattle” is more 
sprightly and continued longer. Excepting which, I could never 
discover any difference in their warblings. Yours are nestlings, 
and, I fear, they will never acquire the ravishing tones that are 
delivered from the throat of a bird in a state of nature. Your 
greatest difficulty will be to preserve them in the month of Septem¬ 
ber, when they are about to migrate, for they will become restless 
at night, and knock themselves about in the cage, wishing to 
obtain their liberty. A mealworm occasionally will be very bene¬ 
ficial to them at that period.—Wit. Brent.] 
ADMISSION TO THE NATIONAL HOSE SHOW. 
I do not know if you are any way connected with the subject, 
but as I have no one else to apply to, may I ask why the tickets 
at the late National Rose Show were so outrageously expensive ? 
I am an ardent lover of the Rose, and a tolerably successful 
amateur ; but, like many amateurs, not blessed with a long purse. 
I was attracted by the fame of the Exhibition ; but I could not 
afford a us. ticket, and so was obliged to wait till four o’clock, 
when the Roses, poor things, had been suffering from the heat in 
a stifling atmosphere of a London room for a long summer’s day. 
Then there w r as such a crowd that it was impossible to see the 
Roses; and I will venture to say, that hundreds of those who 
paid Is. (myself included), would have had no objection to pay 
2s. 6 cl. for admission at a reasonable hour. It appeared to me as 
if the Show were intended for none but those who came in fine 
carriages, with powdered flunkies carrying big sticks ! in which 
case it is folly to call it a National Rose Show. How Mr. Beaton 
managed to report anything I cannot imagine. I hope that 
matters will be better managed another year, and that you will 
put forth a word on behalf of those whose tasto outstrips their 
purses.—R ose. 
DAVID TOWNSEND. 
When a veteran in the cause of human improvement passes 
away, it well becomes the aged to bear testimony to bis worth, 
and the young to profit by his example. When the wise and 
good devote a long life to the generous aims and elevating 
pursuits of the community in which they move, their career 
leaves a bright page in the history of our race. Of such was 
the lamented friend whose mortal remains we have recently 
followed to the tomb,—whose memory we all fondly and grate¬ 
fully cherish. 
David Townsend, son of Samuel and Priscilla Townsend, was 
born in the village of Pughtown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
on the 13tli December, 1787. 
He was brought up to the business of agriculture on his 
father’s farm, and received a plain English education, including 
some elementary mathematical instruction, at the country 
school of the vicinage. Possessed of an intelligent and active 
mind, and being, withal, an excellent penman, he was ap¬ 
pointed in 1810 a clerk in the office of the Registrar and 
Recorder of Chester Coun*y, which appointment led him to 
reside in the borough of West Chester, where he continued 
(with the exception of a year on the paternal farm) during the 
remainder of his life. 
On the establishment of the Bank of Chester County in 181-1, 
David Townsend was chosen one of the Directors, and served 
from November of that year until November, 1810. 
He received the appointment of cashier on 1st of October, 
1819 ; and the bank continued under the sagacious management 
of the new cashier for nearly the third of a century, with un¬ 
paralleled success. His resignation, in 1849, was induced by 
an accidental injury to the brain, which finally disabled him, 
and caused his death. 
In all his varied pursuits, David Townsend was eminently a 
practical man,—ingeniously and successfully adapting the re¬ 
quisite means to the end proposed. To unite the useful with 
the agreeable was his constant aim. 
David Townsend was one of the founders of the Chester 
County Cabinet of Natural Science in the spring of 1820 ; was 
the faithful Secretary and Treasurer of that interesting institu¬ 
tion from its origin until the failure of his health ; and was at 
all times one of the most active, public-spirited, and valuable 
contributors,—whether to the Treasury, the Museum, or the 
Library. About the time the Cabinet was organised, a taste for 
natural history was decidedly manifested by several of the 
members, among whom Mr. Townsend was ever prominent. 
He soon, however, had his attention directed to botanical 
studies, and was ever after distinguished for bis devotion to 
“ the amiable science.” The discriminating eye, and habits of 
close observation, so important in a bank officer, were equally 
available to the botanist, and quite germaiu to the investigations 
I, of genera and species. The plants of Chester County and the 
surrounding districts became familiar acquaintances, and were 
duly arranged in bis herbarium. His aptitude and painstaking 
| skill in preparing specimens were very remarkable, and led to 
a delightful correspondence with those eminent botanists, Dr. F. 
I Boot, of London, and Sir William J. Hooker, formerly of 
J Glasgow, Scotland, now Director of the Royal Gardens at Kew. 
1 The last-named gentleman, writing from Glasgow (while Pro- 
1 lessor of Botany there) to a friend in West Chester in March, 
1833, says:—“I thank you a thousand times for introducing 
me to the correspondence of David Townsend. His copious 
| and beautiful specimens have delighted me.’’ Sir William, 
! whose contributions flowed in on him from every region of the 
globe, subsequently declared, that the handsomest specimens 
j he ever received were prepared and sent by David Townsend, of 
! West Chester, and Professor Short, of Kentucky. 
In the latter end of 1833, a genus of plants, allied to the 
Asters was named Townsendia, in compliment to David Town¬ 
send (who had done much to elucidate the characters of that 
family). The genus was established and published by Sir 
William Hooker, with a figure, in his splendid work, the “ Flora 
of British North America,”—to the description of which be sub¬ 
joined the remark, that Mr. Townsend, having imbibed an 
ardent love of botany, bad devoted bis leisure hours to the 
science with eminent success. “ The plant,” adds Sir William, 
“is peculiarly worthy of bearing liis name, because he has studied 
and ably discriminated the numerous Pensylvanian species of 
the allied genus Aster.' 1 ' The Townsendia was first collected on 
the banks of the Saskatchawan, in latitude 53° North, by Dr. 
Richardson, the intrepid and hardy botanist who accompanied 
poor Sir John Franklin in one of his hyperborean expeditions. 
Five species of the Townsendia are now known, and described 
in Torrey and Gray’s “ North American Flora.” They are all 
found along the streams which rise on the eastern slope of the 
Rocky Mountains; and while those alpine beauties shall con¬ 
tinue to grow they will attest the merits of our Chester Comity 
botanist, and be perpetually associated with his honoured 
name. 
When the cashier’s feeble health compelled bis resignation, 
the Directors of the Bank proclaimed their appreciation of his 
long and faithful services by presenting to him a pair of Silver 
Pilchers, with an appropriate inscription; and around that in¬ 
scription was the delicate and significant accompaniment of 
engraved representations of the Townsendia. — (American 
Gardener’s Monthly.) 
A eeine Husbandry. —The characteristic feature of alpine 
farming is, that the preparation of fodder is the chief object, and 
the cultivation of grain only secondary. In the less elevated 
regions bordering on the flat country, it is the practice to break 
up the grass from time to time, and take a succession of grain 
crops. In more elevated districts, the moisture of the climate 
and the shortness of the season of vegetation prevent crops re¬ 
quiring tillage from coming to perfection, and there the whole 
attention is devoted to pasturage and the preparation of meadow- 
lniy. The top dressing of the plots devoted to hay-growing, with 
the solid and liquid manure of the cattle, the cutting and making 
! of the hay, and transporting it to the farm-offices, occupy a great 
part of the labour of the population of the Alps. They turn to 
account for hay-making those shelves and crevices among the 
mountains which are inaccessible to cat tle, and even goats ; the 
herbage, which often grows luxuriantly in such situations, is cut, 
bound up in cloths or nets, and carried down difficult paths on 
the head, or is thing over the precipices. The grass-lands in the 
lower regions near the dwellings being mostly reserved for hay, 
the cattle are pastured in summer in those regions that lie too 
high or too remote to be inhabited in winter. These pastures 
consist of plateaus and slopes, which immediately on the disap¬ 
pearance of the snow become clothed with a rich carpet ot 
herbage and flowers. Each separate locality, or pasture, is called 
an Alp. Some of these “ alps ” belong to individuals ; others to 
