The New International Encyclopædia/Downing, Charles

DOWNING, Charles (1802-85). An American nurseryman, the elder brother of A. J. Downing. He was born at Newburgh, N. Y. He was one of those who put nursery gardening on a scientific basis. In fact, his nursery became so much of an experiment station that after the death of his brother (see Downing, Andrew Jackson), with whom he had collaborated, he abandoned commercial horticulture and devoted himself for the remainder of his life to the amplification and revision of The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. His efforts more than doubled the original scope of the volume, and made him until his death a recognized authority throughout the world on all questions pertaining to pomology, horticulture, and tree-growth.